1. A network processor comprising: a shared memory; an input/output module configured to receive a packet and store the received packet in the shared memory; a packet processing module; and a processor core module having a local memory; wherein the packet processing module is configured to: classify the received packet stored in the shared memory, identify which one of one or more of a known flow the received packet pertains, retrieve structural metadata corresponding to the identified flow of the received packet, and pass to the processor core module the structural metadata; and wherein the processor core module is configured to: pre-fetch content at address locations in the shared memory specified by the structural metadata, store the pre-fetched content into the local memory, and process the pre-fetched content stored in the local memory.