1. A network device for processing data on a data network, the network device comprising: a plurality of ports configured to receive data packets and to send out processed data packets; a modification engine, in communication with the plurality of ports, configured to parse, evaluate and modify the data packets to produce the processed data packets; a series of search engine pipeline stages, in communication with the modification engine, configured to perform lookup searches through a plurality of search engines; and the plurality of search engines; wherein the series of search engine pipeline stages is configured to perform search requests in sequential processing steps and each stage of the series of search engine pipeline stages is configured to submit a particular search request to the plurality of search engines and receive search results particular to a particular data packet of said processed data packets from the plurality of search engines at a respective processing operation, and wherein each of said plurality of search engines is configured to provide the search results to one or more of the plurality of search engine pipeline stages.