Patent Document ID: 20110225166
Application ID: 13111874
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for performing a frequent itemset operation, the method comprising the steps of: performing the frequent itemset operation in a plurality of phases, wherein each phase is associated with combinations that have a particular number of items; during at least one phase of the plurality of phases, performing the steps of: determining candidate combinations that are to be evaluated during said at least one phase; processing said candidate combinations to determine whether said candidate combinations satisfy a frequency criteria associated with said frequent itemset operation, wherein the step of processing the candidate combinations includes generating bitmaps for said candidate combinations; and storing a set of bitmaps that are generated during said at least one phase; during a subsequent phase of said plurality of phases, performing the steps of: retrieving bitmaps, from said set of bitmaps, from storage; and using the retrieved bitmaps to generate bitmaps for candidate combinations of said subsequent phase; wherein the steps of the method are performed by one or more computing devices.