1. An apparatus for use in a computing system having a central processing unit (CPU), comprising: a graphics processing unit (GPU) for processing graphics data coupled to said CPU; said GPU configured to have a mode of operation in which said GPU classifies data packets on the behalf of said computing system, wherein input data from input packets are formatted into a texture, with each pixel of said texture corresponding to a respective character of said input data, wherein a shading operation is performed on each pixel to perform packet classification.