Abstract: The present invention provides methods and apparatus for abstracting network processors using a virtual machine. The virtual machine approach substantially abstracts the network processor, letting the application developer focus all attention on packet processing. In accordance with the present invention, the NPU-based virtual machine provides the functionality of a pipelined engine, N-way parallelism, or both. The present invention provides a high-level functional language for expressing a wide variety of packet processing applications. The high-level functional language provides primitives in the form of instructions such as, but not limited to, tracking a connection or session, removing an outer header, translating an IP address, encrypting a packet, and scanning the payload for a regular expression.

Abstract: A computer system having a network processor comprising a core processor and at least one microengine in operative communication with the core processor is provided. A table comprised of a plurality of entries with IP addresses associated therewith is built, wherein the entries are organized hierarchically according to an LC-Trie compression algorithm operating on the IP addresses. An Information packet is received within the computer system, wherein the information packet has a destination IP address associated therewith. The table is searched using an LC-Trie search algorithm to find a match between an IP address of an entry in the table and the destination IP address of the information packet. The information packet is transmitted to a forwarding IP address associated with the IP address of the matching entry. An interface is provided to accommodate communication between the core processor and microengine of the network processor.

Abstract: An application interface for an intelligent communication device. The intelligent communication device is connected to a network with at least one server connected thereto. The intelligent communication device includes an operating system. The application interface allows for application program to run on the intelligent communication device while be written independently of the operating system and the network. In a specific implementation, the application interface can be used in an interactive television system. The interactive television system includes a set top box decoder connected to a network with at least one server attached. The set top box decoder is a digital computer device which utilizes an operating system. The application interface includes an application program interface and a media control layer.