1. A method comprising: storing, by a general purpose processor, a content object that is to be virus processed to a system memory of the general purpose processor; setting up, by the general purpose processor, virus scan parameters associated with the content object; reading, by a virus co-processor that is coupled to the general purpose processor via an interconnect bus, instructions from a virus signature memory of the virus co-processor based on the virus scan parameters, wherein the instructions contain op-codes of a first instruction type and op-codes of a second instruction type; assigning, by the virus co-processor, those of the instructions containing op-codes of the first instruction type to a first instruction pipe of a plurality of instruction pipes of the virus co-processor for execution; and executing, by the first instruction pipe, an instruction of the assigned instructions containing op-codes of the first instruction type including accessing a portion of the content object from the system memory.