1. A method, comprising: receiving a plurality of data packets by a processing system via a network during a pre-boot runtime of the processing system, each of the plurality of data packets containing one of a corresponding plurality of data segments; parsing the plurality of data packets using a network protocol stack to extract the plurality of data segments during the pre-boot runtime, a portion of the network protocol stack executed in a hardware entity of the processing system; and transferring the plurality of data segments into system memory of the processing system during the pre-boot runtime.