1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to network devices and, more particularly, to integrated circuits used in network devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networking of computer systems and other electronic devices has become more and more prevalent, at all levels of the network. Computer systems in offices, and sometimes even homes, are networked in local area networks (LANs). Geographically distant computer systems can be network in wide area networks (WANs). The Internet can be considered an example of a WAN.
Various network devices may be involved in transmitting network data (communications between the networked systems) from one computer system to another. For example, firewalls are typically used between a local area network and a wider area network (e.g. the Internet) to protect the local area network from invasion from the wide area network. Routers receive network data (e.g. packets), analyze the data, and route the data on to another router or the receiving computer system. The routers may include circuitry to examine packets to provide such features as quality of service (QoS), caching of information, etc.