Patent ID: 6108658
Filing Date: 2000-08-22
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A computer system, comprising:a computer;one or more input devices associated with the computer for providing a user specification, the user specification establishing at least one approximate .phi.-quantile and a quantile approximation error .epsilon.;a data set of N data elements accessible by the computer;computer usable code means executable by the computer for determining a .phi.-quantile data element in the data set, the computer usable code means having:means for determining a number b of buffers and a size k of each buffer, based at least in part on the permissible approximation error .epsilon. and N;means for filling empty buffers with data elements from the data set to establish a plurality of input buffers;means for collapsing data elements from input buffers of the plurality of input buffers into at least one output buffer; andmeans for outputting from an output buffer a .phi.-quantile data element.