A method and program product for processing data by a pipeline of a single hardware-implemented virtual multiple instance finite state machine (VMI FSM). An input token of multiple input tokens is selected to enter a pipeline of the VMI FSM. The input token includes a reference to an FSM instance. In one embodiment, the reference is an InfiniBand QP number. After being received at the pipeline, a current state and context of the FSM instance are fetched from an array based on the reference and inserted into a field of the input token. A new state of the FSM instance is determined and an output token is generated. The new state and the output token are based on the current state, context, a first input value, and an availability of a resource. The new state of the first FSM instance is written to the array.