1. A method of updating configuration data of a network processor having one or more processing modules and at least one shared memory, the method comprising: writing, by a control processor of the network processor, updated configuration data to the at least one shared memory; sending, by the control processor, a configuration update request to a configuration manager of the network processor, wherein the configuration update request corresponds to updated configuration data stored in the at least one shared memory; determining, by the configuration manager, whether the configuration update request corresponds to settings of a given one of the one or more processing modules; if the configuration update request corresponds to settings of a given one of the one or more processing modules: sending, by the configuration manager, one or more configuration operations to a destination one of the one or more processing modules, wherein the one or more configuration operations correspond to the configuration update request and updated configuration data; updating, by the destination processing module, one or more register values corresponding to configuration settings of the processing module with the corresponding updated configuration data of the one or more configuration operations; otherwise, if the configuration update request corresponds to configuration data stored in the at least one shared memory: sending, by the configuration manager, one or more configuration operations to a destination one of the one or more processing modules, wherein the one or more configuration operations correspond to the configuration update request and data stored in the destination processing module; performing, by the configuration manager, a coherent memory update operation corresponding to the configuration data stored in the at least one shared memory.