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The Advanced “Jump-Counting” Skipfield Pattern

A CPU Cache-Efficient Replacement for Boolean Skipfields

  • Published:
The Computer Games Journal

Abstract

This document describes a numeric pattern for indicating skippable items in data sequences and methods to adjust this pattern when the skippable status for an individual item changes. The pattern provides up to 525% faster iteration speeds (dependent on the ratio of skipped to unskipped items) than an equivalent boolean skipfield on a modern pipelined CPU. This is due to a lack of branching code, reduced number of skipfield reads and a reduced instruction count during iteration, when compared with the boolean pattern. This efficiency is accomplished without significantly impacting the duration taken to change an item’s skippable status. The pattern has significant application in generalized computer science but specifically in the implementation of data containers.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank both Dr. Gisela Klette of The Auckland University of Technology and Dr. Robert Hurley for their invaluable advice and support in both the critiquing and editing of this document. Also thanks for Steven Cantwell for his advice and Baptiste Wicht for his assistance in building useful benchmarks.

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  1. Matthew Bentley

    Present address: Ronin Institute, 127 Haddon Pl, Montclair, NJ, 07043, USA

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    1. Matthew Bentley
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    Bentley, M. The Advanced “Jump-Counting” Skipfield Pattern. Comput Game J 6, 153–169 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-017-0038-3

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-017-0038-3

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