Patent ID: 7634657

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of reducing data processing, comprising: obtaining a data-block containing data contents; calculating a data-block-hash-value based at least in part on the data contents; determining whether the data-block-hash-value appears in a set of processed-block-hash-values of data-blocks; if the data-block-hash-value is not in the set of processed-block-hash-values, submitting the data-block for processing; if the data-block-hash-value is in the set of processed-block-hash-values, adding the data-block to a superblock of data-blocks; calculating a superblock-hash-value based at least in part on the data contents of data-blocks in the superblock; comparing the superblock-hash-value to a processed-superblock-hash-value; and treating data-blocks in the superblock as processed if the superblock-hash-value matches the processed-superblock-hash-value, and treating at least one data-block in the superblock as not yet processed if the superblock-hash-value does not match the processed-superblock-hash-value.