# Dump cycle identification

From a general point of view, the dumps have to be calibrated by cycles, each cycle repeating the same sequence of several phases. In order to do this, MRTCAL identifies those sequences in the ISWITCH column. As this column may have been compressed, the identification also takes into account the BACKPOIN column: a cycle is valid if the expected sequence is found in the compressed column AND if the associated back pointers are contiguous in the original columns.