32 or 64 cycles again provided that there are no active outstanding lookups in process levels greater than the fifth if npse 102 handles lookups for different length prefixes 0035 fig4 b addresses average case latency even with the structure of fig4 a a 32 bit prefix lookup that completed either successfully or unsuccessfully at a process level earlier than the eighth would still retire only after the eighth process level since strides remain to be processed however assuming that all lookups are processed in order the structure of fig4 b enables searches to retire from the pipeline earlier rather than a signal dependent on whether there are any further strides remaining to be processed the processing logic 401 generates a signal 406 indicating whether the search is complete i e either a miss or a match to an end node has been determined with the system of fig4 b when a search operation completes successfully or unsuccessfully a search complete signal 406 is asserted when signal 406 is asserted and there are no active searches further down in the pipeline then this particular search can retire from the pipeline regardless of whether there are strides remaining in the prefix to be processed the search results no longer need be staged through the rest of the pipeline the search completion detection system of fig4 b may be implemented within every pipeline unit 205 a 205 n i e at every process level to allow retirement of each search at the earliest possible point however interconnect routing and timing constraints as well as other practical reasons may justify using the structure of fig4 b only at certain levels.