Method and Apparatus for Acceleration of Hash-Based Lookup

A hash accelerator is provided that receives a hash key value from a processor core, determines a main memory address storing a hash table entry corresponding to the hash key value, and causes the hash table entry to be stored in a cache memory accessible by the processor core. The hash accelerator is configured to execute the same hash function that the processor core executes, and if the hash accelerator is faster than the software executing on the processor core, the hash table entry can be available to the core processor from cache memory by the time the processor core attempts to access the entry. This avoids a cache miss by the processor core, thereby improving overall efficiency of routines executed by the processor core.