Intel Corporation
SPARSE COLUMN-AWARE ENCODINGS FOR NUMERIC DATA TYPES

Abstract:

Methods and apparatus for sparse column-aware encodings for numeric data types, including integer data and floating-point data (float, double, etc.). The encoding schemes are tailored to take advantage of column addressable memories such as stochastic associative memories (SAM) to enable Stochastic Associative Search (SAS), which is a highly efficient and fast way of searching through a very large database of records (order of Billions) and finding similar records to a given query record (search key). Techniques are also disclosed for performing range searches for both integer and floating-point data types. The integer or float data is converted to Hexadecimal form and encoded using an m-of-n constant weight encoding. Only the columns with set bits in search keys need to be read, which significantly reduces the number of reads required for searches.