While waiting for Fedora 14, a question for the engineering types re: searching and finding

[William Case]

Hi;

How does the cpu search and find stuff?

I am asking at the lowest abstraction level and hardware level.  I have
read several operating system texts and have an overview understanding
of 'C'.  There is a huge amount of searching and finding of text in
memory, conditional statements requiring comparisons, and the use of
entry points but not exact addresses from within both kernel space and
user space.  It has occurred to me that a there is necessarily a lot of
physical or bit comparing going on.  Too much, I would think, to keep
dumping a search criteria into a cpu register and then replacing the
contents of a second register from a block of memory until one matches.
I understand the use of hash tables. I am asking at a level lower than
that.

Is there a special unit within the cpu or memory were rapid comparison,
or partial comparisons are made during a search, before a criteria is
noted as found and moved into the cpu registers?  In a generalized way,
at the hardware level, how are searched for criteria found?

I have googled for an answer and found nothing helpful.  That usually
means I have somehow mis-posed the question, am working from wrong
assumptions or lack the correct terminology.  Help chasing the
'searching' mechanism would be appreciated.
-- 
Regards Bill
Fedora 13, Gnome 2.30.2
Evo.2.20.2, Emacs 23.2.1