1. An apparatus for use in a computing system having a central processing unit (CPU) and diagnostic software requiring pattern matching scanning, comprising: a graphics processing unit (GPU) for processing graphics data; and a memory accessible to said GPU storing a string database; said GPU configured to have a mode of operation in which said GPU performs pattern matching scanning operations on input data on the behalf of said computing system, said string database is stored in a format selected to execute a finite state machine implementation of said pattern matching scanning operations, such that a state associated with said finite state machine implementation is incremented with each successive matching character in said input data until a terminal state is reached, whereby pattern matching scanning is offloaded from said CPU to said GPU, wherein said GPU is configured to utilize a shading program to scan for patterns in which said string database is represented as one texture and said input data is represented as another texture.