Patent ID: 6052697
Filing Date: 2000-04-18
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method in a computer system for accessing records having keys with a plurality of values, the computer system having a processor with a cache and a main memory storing a hash table with chains of buckets, each bucket having entries containing a plurality of the records, the buckets in each chain forming a sequence from a first bucket to a last bucket, comprising the steps of:receiving a request from a caller to access a requested record that is identified by a key value;hashing the key value into an index referring to one of the chains using a hash function;searching for the requested record by accessing each bucket in sequence in the indexed chain beginning with the first bucket, whereupon each accessed bucket is loaded into the cache, and by examining the key value of each record in each accessed bucket to determine if the record is the requested record;returning the requested record to the caller; andwhile the loaded buckets remain in the cache,rearranging the records in the loaded buckets in the cache to improve performance of subsequent accesses of the indexed chain.