Manipulating the actual or effective window size in a data-dependant variable-length sub-block parser

A method, comprising:

• selectively reconfiguring a data set to be parsed by a data-dependent parser based, at least in part, on the entropy level of the data set;
• selectively reconfiguring the data-dependent parser, based, at least in part, on the entropy level of the data set;
• and
• parsing the data set into a set of sub-blocks, where the sub-blocks of data are smaller subsets of the data set.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory;
• a set of logics;
• and
• an interface connecting the processor, the memory, and the set of logics, the set of logics comprising:
• a window alteration logic configured to change one or more of, the actual size of a window, and the effective size of the window, the window being used by a data-dependent deduplication parser to identify sub-block boundary locations in a set of data to be deduplicated, where the window is used by the data-dependent deduplication parser to parse the set of data into smaller sub-blocks of data, where the sub-blocks of data are subsets of the set of data.

A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when performed by a data deduplication computer control the data deduplication computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• selectively changing an actual window size based on the entropy of data presented to the data deduplication computer;
• and
• selectively changing an effective window size based on the entropy of data presented to the data deduplication computer,
• where the data deduplication computer employs a window based approach to identify boundary locations in data presented to the data deduplication computer, and where the window based approach selectively identifies a boundary in the data presented to the data deduplication computer as a function of whether data in a window satisfies a constraint, where the window is used by the deduplication computer to parse data presented to the data deduplication computer into smaller sub-blocks of data, where the sub-blocks of data are subsets of the data presented to the data deduplication computer.