1. A computerized method of compressing and processing information associated with a state machine, the method comprising: compressing and storing data associated with the state machine, by the steps of: identifying a state comprising a plurality of transition instructions, each transition instruction associated with at least one input character and a next state; determining respective next states indicated by each of the plurality of transition instructions; associating each unique next state with a selected one of a plurality of indices that are each indicative of respective unique next states, wherein one or more of the input characters are associated with a first of the plurality of indices; storing the plurality of indices so that respective indices are associated with respective input characters; storing each of the unique transition instructions so that each of the unique transition instructions are individually addressable in the memory and are accessible at respective locations indicated by the indices; and traversing the state machine, by the steps of: determining a next character of an input data stream; assessing a first memory associated with a current state of the state machine to determine the transition index associated with the next character; accessing a second memory to determine the unique transition instruction associated with the determined transition index, wherein the unique transition instruction is indicative of a next state and each respective unique transition instruction uniquely identifies a next state for the current state; and selecting a next state indicated in the determined unique transition instruction.