42. The search engine of claim 41 , further comprising: means for selectively disabling each of the co-processors in response to results from one or more other co-processors.
41. A search engine for determining whether a selected portion of an input string including a plurality of input characters matches a regular expression including an inexact pattern, comprising: means for receiving a microprogram embodying the inexact pattern and comprising a plurality of commands, wherein each command embodies a different portion of the inexact pattern; means for delegating each command to a corresponding co-processor that is dedicated to execute the command; and means for processing the commands in the corresponding co-processors, wherein each co-processor implements an associated portion of an inexact pattern match operation between the input string and the inexact pattern, wherein the inexact pattern comprises a specified range of instances of selected characters each belonging to a specified set of characters.