Apparatus and method for storing min terms in a central min term memory for efficient sharing by a plurality of network switch ports

A method of evaluating incoming data packets at a network switch, the network switch including a plurality of network switch ports and a min term manager separate from and in communication with each network switch port, the min term manager including a central min term memory, the method comprising:

• receiving from a host controller a plurality of templates configured for simultaneous identification of respective data formats in an incoming data packet, each template configured for identifying a prescribed format within the incoming data packet and having at least one min term configured for comparing a corresponding prescribed value to a corresponding selected byte of the incoming data packet;
• storing each of the min terms in the central min term memory;
• simultaneously comparing bytes of the incoming data packet with a plurality of the templates by fetching, for each byte, a group of the stored min terms from the central min term memory and simultaneously comparing at a certain network switch port the corresponding byte with the corresponding fetched group of the stored min terms;
• and
• generating a comparison result based on min term results from the comparisons of the bytes relative to the plurality of templates.

A network switch configured for evaluating an incoming data packet, comprising:

• a min term controller configured for storing min term values configured for simultaneous comparison with corresponding incoming data bytes;
• a plurality of network switch ports separate from and in communication with a central min term memory, each network switch port including:
• a min term controller configured fetching min term values from the central min term memory;
• a min term generator configured for simultaneously comparing a received byte of the incoming data packet with the fetched min terms corresponding to the received byte and generating respective min term comparison results;
• and
• an equation core configured for generating a frame tag identifying the incoming data packet based on the min term comparison results relative to the templates,
• wherein the min term controller is constructed and arranged to fetch from a min term manager data including a location of a certain byte, an address of the certain byte, the number of min terms associated with the certain byte and the location of the byte which follows the certain byte.