diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/base/INormalizedKeyComputerFactoryProvider.java b/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/base/INormalizedKeyComputerFactoryProvider.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 4a4f5b3..0000000
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/base/INormalizedKeyComputerFactoryProvider.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright 2009-2010 by The Regents of the University of California
- * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * you may obtain a copy of the License from
- * 
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- * 
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-
-package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.core.base;
-
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.INormalizedKeyComputerFactory;
-
-public interface INormalizedKeyComputerFactoryProvider {
-
-    @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
-    INormalizedKeyComputerFactory getAscINormalizedKeyComputerFactory();
-}
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/dataflow/util/CopyUpdateUtil.java b/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/dataflow/util/CopyUpdateUtil.java
index 3f89543..30df916 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/dataflow/util/CopyUpdateUtil.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/dataflow/util/CopyUpdateUtil.java
@@ -29,6 +29,17 @@
             UpdateBuffer updateBuffer, ArrayTupleBuilder cloneUpdateTb, ITreeIndexAccessor indexAccessor,
             ITreeIndexCursor cursor, RangePredicate rangePred) throws HyracksDataException, IndexException {
         if (cloneUpdateTb.getSize() > 0) {
+            int[] fieldEndOffsets = cloneUpdateTb.getFieldEndOffsets();
+            int srcStart = fieldEndOffsets[0];
+            int srcLen = fieldEndOffsets[1] - fieldEndOffsets[0]; // the updated vertex size
+            int frSize = frameTuple.getFieldLength(1); // the vertex binary size in the leaf page
+            if (srcLen <= frSize) {
+                //doing in-place update if possible, save the "real update" overhead
+                System.arraycopy(cloneUpdateTb.getByteArray(), srcStart, frameTuple.getFieldData(1),
+                        frameTuple.getFieldStart(1), srcLen);
+                cloneUpdateTb.reset();
+                return;
+            }
             if (!updateBuffer.appendTuple(cloneUpdateTb)) {
                 tempTupleReference.reset(frameTuple.getFieldData(0), frameTuple.getFieldStart(0),
                         frameTuple.getFieldLength(0));
@@ -49,5 +60,4 @@
             cloneUpdateTb.reset();
         }
     }
-
 }
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/ComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/ComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
index 0a0a14f..caeeb10 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/ComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/ComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
@@ -249,13 +249,10 @@
                     if (vertex != null && vertex.hasUpdate()) {
                         if (!dynamicStateLength) {
                             // in-place update
-                            int fieldCount = tupleRef.getFieldCount();
-                            for (int i = 1; i < fieldCount; i++) {
-                                byte[] data = tupleRef.getFieldData(i);
-                                int offset = tupleRef.getFieldStart(i);
-                                bbos.setByteArray(data, offset);
-                                vertex.write(output);
-                            }
+                            byte[] data = tupleRef.getFieldData(1);
+                            int offset = tupleRef.getFieldStart(1);
+                            bbos.setByteArray(data, offset);
+                            vertex.write(output);
                         } else {
                             // write the vertex id
                             DataOutput tbOutput = cloneUpdateTb.getDataOutput();
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/StartComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/StartComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
index 9998205..48d4d80 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/StartComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/function/StartComputeUpdateFunctionFactory.java
@@ -253,13 +253,10 @@
                     if (vertex != null && vertex.hasUpdate()) {
                         if (!dynamicStateLength) {
                             // in-place update
-                            int fieldCount = tupleRef.getFieldCount();
-                            for (int i = 1; i < fieldCount; i++) {
-                                byte[] data = tupleRef.getFieldData(i);
-                                int offset = tupleRef.getFieldStart(i);
-                                bbos.setByteArray(data, offset);
-                                vertex.write(output);
-                            }
+                            byte[] data = tupleRef.getFieldData(1);
+                            int offset = tupleRef.getFieldStart(1);
+                            bbos.setByteArray(data, offset);
+                            vertex.write(output);
                         } else {
                             // write the vertex id
                             DataOutput tbOutput = cloneUpdateTb.getDataOutput();
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongAscNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongAscNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 9181691..0000000
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongAscNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
-package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.runtime.touchpoint;
-
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.INormalizedKeyComputer;
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.INormalizedKeyComputerFactory;
-import edu.uci.ics.pregelix.api.util.SerDeUtils;
-
-public class VLongAscNormalizedKeyComputerFactory implements INormalizedKeyComputerFactory {
-    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-
-    @Override
-    public INormalizedKeyComputer createNormalizedKeyComputer() {
-        return new INormalizedKeyComputer() {
-            private static final int POSTIVE_LONG_MASK = (3 << 30);
-            private static final int NON_NEGATIVE_INT_MASK = (2 << 30);
-            private static final int NEGATIVE_LONG_MASK = (0 << 30);
-
-            @Override
-            public int normalize(byte[] bytes, int start, int length) {
-                long value = SerDeUtils.readVLong(bytes, start, length);
-                int highValue = (int) (value >> 32);
-                if (highValue > 0) {
-                    /**
-                     * larger than Integer.MAX
-                     */
-                    int highNmk = getKey(highValue);
-                    highNmk >>= 2;
-                    highNmk |= POSTIVE_LONG_MASK;
-                    return highNmk;
-                } else if (highValue == 0) {
-                    /**
-                     * smaller than Integer.MAX but >=0
-                     */
-                    int lowNmk = (int) value;
-                    lowNmk >>= 2;
-                    lowNmk |= NON_NEGATIVE_INT_MASK;
-                    return lowNmk;
-                } else {
-                    /**
-                     * less than 0; TODO: have not optimized for that
-                     */
-                    int highNmk = getKey(highValue);
-                    highNmk >>= 2;
-                    highNmk |= NEGATIVE_LONG_MASK;
-                    return highNmk;
-                }
-            }
-
-            private int getKey(int value) {
-                long unsignedFirstValue = (long) value;
-                int nmk = (int) ((unsignedFirstValue - ((long) Integer.MIN_VALUE)) & 0xffffffffL);
-                return nmk;
-            }
-
-        };
-    }
-}
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongDescNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java b/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongDescNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 6b2738b..0000000
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-runtime/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/runtime/touchpoint/VLongDescNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.runtime.touchpoint;
-
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.INormalizedKeyComputer;
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.INormalizedKeyComputerFactory;
-
-public class VLongDescNormalizedKeyComputerFactory implements INormalizedKeyComputerFactory {
-    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-    private final INormalizedKeyComputerFactory ascNormalizedKeyComputerFactory = new VLongAscNormalizedKeyComputerFactory();
-
-    @Override
-    public INormalizedKeyComputer createNormalizedKeyComputer() {
-        return new INormalizedKeyComputer() {
-            private INormalizedKeyComputer nmkComputer = ascNormalizedKeyComputerFactory.createNormalizedKeyComputer();
-
-            @Override
-            public int normalize(byte[] bytes, int start, int length) {
-                int nk = nmkComputer.normalize(bytes, start, length);
-                return (int) ((long) Integer.MAX_VALUE - (long) (nk - Integer.MIN_VALUE));
-            }
-
-        };
-    }
-}