<<Bob:
By wrap I meant put the code inside a loop.  This is between 1.7 and 3x
faster depending on the size of the set on a PII, and it uses your
BitsInByte Nibble algorithm crushed into one pascal expression.
>>

This is getting embarrassing!


To get your code to compile with typed @, I had to replace your Data
assignment with --


 Data:=PbyteArray(@TByteArray(tar)[size]);


(I've been bitten recently with just kind of problem, untyped @ on an
indexed array.)


It looks like you worked on this. Can I ask --


-- Why not a For loop?


-- Why scan down the array?


-- Why use the var b? Is using this buffercheaper than doing a second
indexed access to the same spot?


In other words, what if this was --


----------
function card2(var tar; size: integer): integer;
const (*nibble table*)
  Ca: array[0..15] of integer=( 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2, 2,
3, 2, 3, 3, 4);
var
    ab: TbyteArray absolute tar;
    j: integer;
begin
  result:=0;
  for j := 0 to size - 1 do begin
    inc(result, Ca[ab[j] and $F] + Ca[ab[j] shr 4]);
  end;
end;
--------------------


    PhR