Using a trace of address references, we compared the efficiency of several different hashing functions, such as cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) polynomials, Fletcher checksum, folding of address octets using the exclusive-or operation, and bit extraction from the address. Guidelines are provided for determining the size of hash mask required to achieve a specified level of performance. 1 INTRODUCTION The trend toward networks becoming larger and faster, addresses becoming larger, has impelled a need to explore alternatives for fast address recognition. This problem is actually a special case of the general problem of searching through a large data base and finding the information associated with a given key. For example, Datalink adapters on local area networks (LAN) need to recognize the multicast destination addresses of frames on the LAN. Bridges, used to interconnect two or more LANs, have to recognize the destination addresses of every frame and decide quickly whether to receive...

A new algorithm for generating order preserving minimal perfect hash functions is presented. The algorithm is probabilistic, involving generation of random graphs. It uses expected linear time and requires a linear number words to represent the hash function, and thus is optimal up to constant factors. It runs very fast in practice. Keywords: Data structures, probabilistic algorithms, analysis of algorithms, hashing, random graphs

With the rapid decrease in the cost of random access memory (RAM), it will soon become economically feasible to place full-text indexes of a library in main memory. One essential component of the indexing system is a hashing algorithm, which maps a keyword into the memory address of the index information corresponding to that keyword. This thesis studies the application of the minimal perfect hashing algorithm in main memory indexing. This algorithm is integrated into the index search engine of the Library 2000 system, a digital on-line library system. The performance of this algorithm is compared with that of the open-addressing hashing scheme. We find that although the minimal perfect hashing algorithm needs fewer keyword comparisons per keyword search on average, its hashing performance is slower than the open-addressing scheme.

In recent years, the recognition of handwritten mathematical expressions has recieved an increasing amount of attention in pattern recognition research. The diversity of approaches to the problem and the lack of a commercially viable system, however, indicate that there is still much research to be done in this area. In this thesis, I will describe an on-line approach for converting a handwritten mathematical expression into an equivalent expression in a typesetting command language such as T E X or MathML, as well as a feedback-oriented user interface which can make errors more tolerable to the end user since they can be quickly corrected.