1. A device for matching an input string to a pattern via a deterministic finite automaton (DFA), the DFA comprising a plurality of states including a current state, the input string comprising a plurality of input symbols, the device comprising: a pattern matching circuit that implements the DFA, the pattern matching circuit being configured to receive and serially process the input symbols of the input string in groups of m input symbols, wherein m is an integer that is greater than or equal to 1, the pattern matching circuit comprising: (1) a transition table memory comprising a plurality of stored transitions, each stored transition being indexed by data corresponding to at least one input symbol, each transition comprising a next state identifier, (2) transition retrieval logic configured to retrieve from the transition table memory each transition that is indexed by data corresponding to the at least one input symbol of the received input symbol group without consideration of the current state, and (3) state selection logic configured to receive each retrieved transition, determine which of the retrieved transitions corresponds to the current state, determine a next state for the DFA based on the next state identifier of the determined transition, and determine whether a match exists between the input string and the pattern.