Abstract: Incoming data streams are processed at relatively high speed for decoding, content inspection and classification. A multitude of processing channels process multiple data streams concurrently so as to allows networking based host systems to provide the data streams—as the packets carrying these data streams are received from the network—without requiring the data streams to be buffered. Moreover, host systems processing stored content, such as email messages and computer files, can process more than one stream at once and thereby make better utilization of the host system's CPU. Processing bottlenecks are alleviated by offloading the tasks of data extraction, inspection and classification from the host CPU. A content processing system which so processes the incoming data streams, is readily extensible to accommodate and perform additional data processing algorithms. The content processing system is configurable to enable additional data processing algorithms to be performed in parallel or in series.