Bit field manipulation

A method for direct access to bit fields in instruction operands, comprising:

• providing indications of bit fields in source and target operands of a processor executable instruction, each of the indicated bit fields consisting of a plurality of bits in a plurality of bit positions in the source and target operands;
• performing the processor executable instruction utilizing the bit fields in the source and target operands in response to the indications of the bit fields;
• and
• providing, by performing the processor executable instruction, and in response to the indications of the bit fields, direct manipulation of any bits in any bit field of the source and target operands;
• transferring data from an input buffer to a packet task manager;
• dispatching the data from the packet task manager to an analysis machine;
• classifying the data in the analysis machine;
• and
• modifying and forwarding the data in a packet manipulator;
• wherein no instruction depends on a preceding instruction because each instruction in a pipeline is executed for a different thread.