1. A packet switching controller implemented in a packet switch, the packet switching controller comprising: a packet classification engine to provide classification dependent information for a packet; and an application engine having a pipelined architecture, comprising: a source lookup engine to perform a source address lookup using a source address of the packet to produce a first disposition recommendation and to provide an output to a destination lookup engine; a destination lookup engine to perform a destination address lookup using a destination address of the packet to produce a second disposition recommendation; and a disposition engine to receive a plurality of inputs including the classification dependent information, the first disposition recommendation, and the second disposition recommendation; the disposition engine to provide one or more outputs including a disposition decision for the packet, wherein the disposition engine programmatically generates the disposition decision for the packet in response to the plurality of inputs.