1. A method comprising: storing, by a general purpose processor, a content object that is to be virus processed to a system memory of the general purpose processor; setting up, by the general purpose processor, virus scan parameters associated with the content object; reading, by a virus co-processor that is coupled to the general purpose processor via an interconnect bus, instructions from a virus signature memory of the virus co-processor based on the virus scan parameters, wherein the instructions contain op-codes of a first instruction type and op-codes of a second instruction type, wherein the op-codes of the first instruction type are associated with primitive instructions and wherein the op-codes of the second instruction type are associated with Content Pattern Recognition (CPR) instructions and wherein said reading comprises: fetching, by a unified fetch and parse module of the virus co-processor, an instruction from an instruction cache when the instruction is available in the instruction cache; and otherwise, when the instruction is not available in the instruction cache, then fetching by the unified fetch and parse module, the instruction from the virus signature memory; assigning, by the virus co-processor, those of the instructions containing op-codes of the first instruction type to a first instruction pipe of a plurality of instruction pipes of the virus co-processor for execution; assigning, by the virus co-processor, those of the instructions containing op-codes of the second instruction type to a second instruction pipe of the plurality of instruction pipes for execution; and executing, by the first instruction pipe, an instruction of the assigned instructions containing op-codes of the first instruction type including accessing a portion of the content object from the system memory.