Patent ID: 7219211

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a plurality of data units; precomputing a plurality of hash results associated with the data units, the precomputing a plurality of the hash results comprising: identifying one or more portions of the data units, generating hash keys based on the one or more portions of the data units, and performing a hash function using the hash keys to generate the precomputed hash results; storing the precomputed hash results in a first memory, the first memory concurrently storing the precomputed hash results associated with a plurality of the data units, each of the precomputed hash results being available for subsequent selective retrieval by a processor; storing the data units in a second memory; retrieving, by the processor, the data units from the second memory; and retrieving, by the processor, the precomputed hash result associated with one of the data units from the first memory in lieu of the processor performing the hash function with regard to the one data unit when the processor needs a hash result associated with the one data unit.