1. A method, comprising: selecting, via a bus translator, one bus amongst a first bus of a plurality of different types of buses through which a device will communicate and a second bus of the plurality of different types of buses through which the device will communicate, wherein the first bus is coupled to a first physical interface of a plurality of physical interfaces having first electrical conductors configured in a first arrangement and the second bus is coupled to a second physical interface of the plurality of physical interfaces having second electrical conductors configured in a second arrangement, wherein the device comprises a pattern-recognition processor configured to receive a data stream and search the received data stream for a particular pattern to generate a search result, wherein the device comprises the bus translator; wherein the pattern-recognition processor is a physically separate non-integrated component from the bus translator, wherein the pattern recognition processor comprises: a decoder having an input configured to receive the data stream; and a plurality of feature cells coupled to the decoder, wherein each of the plurality of feature cells comprise a plurality of memory cells each addressable by a conductor coupled to an output of the decoder; and translating, via the bus translator, a signal received from the selected one bus into a translated signal having different characteristics than the signal appropriate for reception by the device if the signal is received from an external bus coupled to the device having different characteristics than the selected bus.