LOOK-UP SWITCH ACCELERATOR AND METHOD OF OPERATING SAME

A look-up switch accelerator which includes an associative memory for storing information associated with one or more look-up switch statements. For each look-up switch statement, this information includes a look-up switch identifier value, a plurality of match values and a corresponding plurality of jump offset values. The look-up switch accelerator also includes circuitry for determining whether a current instruction corresponds to a look-up switch statement stored in the memory, circuitry for determining whether a current match value associated with the current instruction corresponds with one of the match values stored in the memory, and circuitry for accessing a jump offset value from the memory when the current instruction corresponds to a look-up switch statement stored in the memory and the current match value corresponds with one of the match values stored in the memory (wherein the accessed jump offset value corresponds with the current match value). Also included is circuitry for retrieving match and jump offset values associated with a current look-up switch statement when the associative memory does not already contain the match and jump offset values associated with the current look-up switch statement.