Associative matrix methods, systems and computer program products using bit plane representations of selected segments

1. A method of compressing an association matrix that contains a plurality of counts that indicate associations among a plurality of pairs of attributes, the method comprising:

generating a set of association matrix segments by dividing the association matrix into the set of association matrix segments, a respective one of which defines a subset of the association matrix that includes more than one of the plurality of pairs of attributes, the set of association matrix segments including a first portion of association matrix segments that have at least one count and a second portion of association matrix segments that have zero counts;

storing, in an associative memory, identifications of the first portion of association matrix segments so as to identify the association matrix segments that have at least one count; and

storing, in the associative memory, the count of at least one of the first portion of association matrix segments that is associated with at least one of the stored identifications as at least one bit plane representation, the at least one bit plane representation identifying a value of the at least one associated count for a bit position of the count that corresponds to the associated bit plane.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein storing the count of at least one of the first portion of association matrix segments that is associated with at least one of the stored identifications as at least one bit plane representation comprises:

splitting the at least one count that is associated with the at least one of the stored identifications into a plurality of bit planes;

identifying at least one of the bit planes that has non-zero bit plane data associated therewith;

generating a map that identifies a position of the non-zero bit plane data in the at least one bit plane that has non-zero bit plane data associated therewith;

generating at least one representation of the non-zero bit plane data that is associated with the at least one bit plane that was identified; and

storing the map and the at least one representation of the non-zero bit plane data.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the following is performed between storing identifications and storing the count:

reorganizing the identifications of the first portion of association matrix segments into a continuous range; and

wherein storing the count comprises storing the count of at least one of the first portion of association matrix segments that is associated with a respective segment of the continuous range as at least one bit plane representation, the at least one bit plane representation identifying a value of the at least one associated count for a bit position of the count that corresponds to the associated bit plane.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein storing the count of at least one of the first portion of association matrix segments that is associated with a respective segment of the continuous range as at least one bit plane representation comprises:

splitting the count that is associated with the respective one of the continuous range into a plurality of bit planes;

identifying at least one of the bit planes that has non-zero bit plane data associated therewith;

generating a map that identifies a position of the non-zero bit plane data in the at least one bit plane that has non-zero bit plane data associated therewith;

generating at least one representation of the non-zero bit plane data that is associated with the at least one bit plane that was identified; and

storing the map and the at least one representation of the non-zero bit plane data.

5. A The method according to claim 1 further comprising observing an association among observed attributes into the compressed association matrix, the observing comprising:

adding the association among the observed attributes to the at least bit plane presentation that corressponds to the observed attributes, if the observed attributes exist in the identification of segments of the association matrix that have at least one count that is associated therewith; and creating at least one bit plane representation for the observed attributes, if the observed attributes do not exist in the identification of segments of the association matrix that have at least one count that is associated therewith.

6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising imagining an association among selected attributes of the compressed association matrix, the imagining comprising:

obtaining the at least one bit plane representation that corresponds to the selected attributes in the compressed association matrix; and

converting the at least one bit plane representation that was obtained to a count that identifies associations among the selected attributes.

7. A system comprising a memory that includes computer instructions that are configured to perform the method of claim 1 .

8. A system comprising a memory that includes computer instructions that are configured to perform the method of claim 2 .

9. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a memory having computer-readable program code in the memory, the computer readable program code configured to perform the method of claim 1 .

10. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a memory having computer-readable program code embodied in the memory, the computer readable program code configured to perform the method of claim 2 .

11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a memory having a data structure for a compressed association matrix including the identifications and the at least one bit plane representation of claim 1 .

12. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a memory having a data structure for a compressed association matrix including the identifications and the at least one bit plane representation of claim 2 .