152 in place of priority encoder 102 priority arbiter 152 receives 2 2 wordlines zero or more of these wordlines being asserted and generates 2 n wordlines with only zero or one asserted with the asserted wordline corresponding to the first asserted input wordline in other words priority arbiter 152 deasserts all but zero or one the received wordlines in the following k is the number of bits required to represent each symbol and m is the number of bits required to represent each state within the fsm 50 thus the total number of states is 2 m and up to 256 symbols may be represented if k is equal to 8 tcam 101 contains a lookup table for transitions into each state and is adapted to benefit from a sizeable amount of memory compression tcam 101 may have 2 n entries of length m k bits where n is typically smaller than m k the matching tcam word is delivered to priority encoder 102 which selects the lowest address encoded as an n bit word thus entries are stored in the tcam ordered from most specific to most general unless otherwise stated in the following all numbers are assumed to be in the decimal format fig4 a shows an exemplary embodiment of an fsm 200 in.