In one embodiment, the present invention determines index values corresponding to bits of a binary vector that have a value of 1. During each clock cycle, a masking technique is applied to M sub-vector index values, where each sub-vector index value corresponds to a different bit of a sub-vector of the binary vector. The masking technique is applied such that (i) the sub-vector index values that correspond to bits having a value of 0 are zeroed out and (ii) the sub-vector index values that correspond to the bits having a value of 1 are left unchanged. The masked sub-vector index values are sorted, and index values are calculated based on the masked sub-vector index values. The index values generated are then distributed uniformly to a number M of index memories such that the M index memories store substantially the same number of index values.