8. The search engine of claim 7 , wherein the microcontroller generates a match signal in response to a combination of the compliance signal and the range signal.
8. The search engine of claim 7 , wherein the microcontroller generates a match signal in response to a combination of the compliance signal and the range signal. 9. The search engine of claim 8 , wherein the microcontroller de-asserts the match signal if the compliance signal indicates that one of the input characters in the first portion of the input string is not a member of the specified set of characters.