1. A method for pattern matching in a plurality of interconnected processing engines, the method comprising: accepting a stream of input sequences over an interface and storing the input sequences; storing computer program instructions corresponding to a finite state automaton and including data specifying transitions among states associated with the finite state automaton, in memory accessible by the interconnected processing engines; storing instructions for matching an input sequence to one or more patterns in memory accessible by a first set of at least two of the interconnected processing engines, the at least two processing engines configured to perform different respective functions; storing instructions for matching the input sequence to one or more patterns in memory accessible by a second set of at least two different ones of the interconnected processing engines, the at least two different processing engines configured to perform different respective functions; with at least one function performed by a first subset of either the first and/or the second set of processing engines including translating symbols within an input sequence based on an order associated with subsets of the specified transitions; distributing information identifying selected input sequences to the first and second sets of processing engines; and retrieving the identified input sequences to perform pattern matching in the first and second sets of processing engines.