Interesting idea actually...a hardware XML parser...It will take some of th overhead from the CPU while dealing with XMLs

Interesting final year project I suppose
I don't see why a 8051 won't do...since mostly you'l be accepting char bytes, doing simple string comparison, and returning data as chars.

I 've noticed a few aspects you might have to deal with:

(I am assuming that it is meant to be used for PCs and you are designing it as a PC-compatible card with a device driver...)
1>What browser is it to be compatible with?

2> The resulting data structures have to be written into a file for the host machine to use . How would you do that?
Or are you gonna keep everything in RAM?

3>What sort of bus interface are you gonna design for? ISA, USB ...?

4>What about Validation and "Well-Formed-ness"? You will have to parse the DTD file before you get to the XML, unless it is included in the XML itself. What about CSS and XSL? Who deals with all that?

5>Why CD?? Isn't it more useful for Web applications? Wouldn't it be more useful (and easier) to communicate with the browser directly through the Device driver, rather than with a CD-ROM?If the data is accessed through a device driver, you have unlimited flexibility

6> Is it possible to interface it directly with a modem? So all the data is parsed even as it comes over the net B-), and even the device driver overhead is cut out.

Just give me more time and I'll come up with even more doubts :))

Or have I got a completely wrong idea about this?

Kundi