diff --git a/src/common/bitpacker.rs b/src/common/bitpacker.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ca9e5e893
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/bitpacker.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+use std::io::Write;
+use std::io;
+use common::serialize::BinarySerializable;
+use std::mem;
+
+
+pub fn compute_num_bits(amplitude: u32) -> u8 {
+    (32u32 - amplitude.leading_zeros()) as u8
+}
+
+pub struct BitPacker<TWrite: Write> {
+    output: TWrite,
+    mini_buffer: u64,
+    mini_buffer_written: usize,
+    num_bits: usize,
+    written_size: usize,
+}
+
+impl<TWrite: Write> BitPacker<TWrite> {   
+    
+    pub fn new(output: TWrite, num_bits: usize) -> BitPacker<TWrite> {
+        BitPacker {
+            output: output,
+            mini_buffer: 0u64,
+            mini_buffer_written: 0,
+            num_bits: num_bits,
+            written_size: 0,
+        }
+    }
+    
+    pub fn write(&mut self, val: u32) -> io::Result<()> {
+        let val_u64 = val as u64;
+        if self.mini_buffer_written + self.num_bits > 64 {
+            self.mini_buffer |= val_u64.wrapping_shl(self.mini_buffer_written as u32);
+            self.written_size += self.mini_buffer.serialize(&mut self.output)?;
+            self.mini_buffer = val_u64.wrapping_shr((64 - self.mini_buffer_written) as u32);
+            self.mini_buffer_written = self.mini_buffer_written + (self.num_bits as usize) - 64;
+        }
+        else {
+            self.mini_buffer |= val_u64 << self.mini_buffer_written;
+            self.mini_buffer_written += self.num_bits;
+            if self.mini_buffer_written == 64 {
+                self.written_size += self.mini_buffer.serialize(&mut self.output)?;
+                self.mini_buffer_written = 0;
+                self.mini_buffer = 0u64;
+            }    
+        }
+        Ok(())
+    }
+    
+    fn flush(&mut self) -> io::Result<()>{
+        if self.mini_buffer_written > 0 {
+            let num_bytes = (self.mini_buffer_written + 7) / 8;
+            let arr: [u8; 8] =  unsafe { mem::transmute::<u64, [u8; 8]>(self.mini_buffer) };
+            self.output.write_all(&arr[..num_bytes])?;
+            self.written_size += num_bytes;
+            self.mini_buffer_written = 0;
+        }
+        Ok(())
+    }
+    
+    pub fn close(mut self) -> io::Result<(TWrite, usize)> {
+        self.flush()?;
+        Ok((self.output, self.written_size))
+    }
+}
+
+
+
+pub struct BitUnpacker<'a> {
+    data: &'a [u8],
+    num_bits: usize,
+    mask: u32,
+}
+
+impl<'a> BitUnpacker<'a> {
+    pub fn new(data: &'a [u8], num_bits: usize) -> BitUnpacker<'a> {
+        BitUnpacker {
+            data: data,
+            num_bits: num_bits,
+            mask: (1u32 << num_bits) - 1u32,
+        }
+    }
+    
+    pub fn get(&self, idx: usize) -> u32 {
+        if self.num_bits == 0 {
+            return 0;
+        }
+        let addr = (idx * self.num_bits) / 8;
+        let bit_shift = (idx * self.num_bits) - addr * 8;
+        let val_unshifted_unmasked: u64;
+        if addr + 8 <= self.data.len() {
+            val_unshifted_unmasked = unsafe { * (self.data.as_ptr().offset(addr as isize) as *const u64) };
+        }
+        else {
+            let mut arr = [0u8; 8];
+            for i in 0..self.data.len() - addr {
+                arr[i] = self.data[addr + i];
+            }
+            val_unshifted_unmasked = unsafe { mem::transmute::<[u8; 8], u64>(arr) };
+        }
+        let val_shifted = (val_unshifted_unmasked >> bit_shift) as u32;
+        (val_shifted & self.mask)
+    }
+        
+}
+
+
+
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod test {
+    use super::{BitPacker, BitUnpacker, compute_num_bits};
+    
+    #[test]
+    fn test_compute_num_bits() {
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(1), 1u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(0), 0u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(2), 2u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(3), 2u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(4), 3u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(255), 8u8);
+        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(256), 9u8);
+    }
+    
+    fn test_bitpacker_util(len: usize, num_bits: usize) {
+        let mut bitpacker = BitPacker::new(Vec::new(), num_bits);
+        let max_val: u32 = (1 << num_bits) - 1;
+        let vals: Vec<u32> = (0u32..len as u32).map(|i| {
+            if max_val == 0 {
+                0
+            }
+            else {
+                i % max_val
+            }
+        }).collect();
+        for &val in &vals {
+            bitpacker.write(val).unwrap();
+        }
+        let (data, num_bytes) = bitpacker.close().unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(num_bytes, (num_bits * len + 7) / 8);       
+        assert_eq!(data.len(), num_bytes);
+        let bitunpacker = BitUnpacker::new(&data, num_bits);
+        for (i, val) in vals.iter().enumerate() {
+            assert_eq!(bitunpacker.get(i), *val);
+        }
+    }
+    
+    #[test]
+    fn test_bitpacker() {
+        test_bitpacker_util(10, 3);
+        test_bitpacker_util(10, 0);
+        test_bitpacker_util(10, 1);
+        test_bitpacker_util(6, 14);
+        test_bitpacker_util(1000, 14);
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/common/mod.rs b/src/common/mod.rs
index 0c64d5f9c..50549ccac 100644
--- a/src/common/mod.rs
+++ b/src/common/mod.rs
@@ -1,12 +1,17 @@
 mod serialize;
 mod timer;
 mod vint;
+mod bitpacker;
+
 
 pub use self::serialize::BinarySerializable;
 pub use self::timer::Timing;
 pub use self::timer::TimerTree;
 pub use self::timer::OpenTimer;
 pub use self::vint::VInt;
+pub use self::bitpacker::compute_num_bits;
+
+
 use std::io;
 
 pub fn make_io_err(msg: String) -> io::Error {
@@ -26,36 +31,3 @@ pub trait HasLen {
 }
 
 
-fn count_leading_zeros(mut val: u32) -> u8 {
-    if val == 0 {
-        return 32;
-    }
-    let mut result = 0u8;
-    while (val & (1u32 << 31)) == 0 {
-        val <<= 1;
-        result += 1;
-    }
-    result
-}
-
-
-pub fn compute_num_bits(amplitude: u32) -> u8 {
-    32u8 - count_leading_zeros(amplitude)
-}
-
-
-
-#[cfg(test)]
-mod test {
-    use super::compute_num_bits;
-    
-    fn test_compute_num_bits() {
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(1), 1u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(0), 0u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(2), 2u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(3), 2u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(4), 3u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(255), 8u8);
-        assert_eq!(compute_num_bits(256), 9u8);
-    }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/common/serialize.rs b/src/common/serialize.rs
index 90752992c..29c7b2986 100644
--- a/src/common/serialize.rs
+++ b/src/common/serialize.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 
-use byteorder::{NativeEndian, ReadBytesExt, WriteBytesExt};
+use byteorder::{ReadBytesExt, WriteBytesExt};
+use byteorder::LittleEndian as Endianness;
 use std::fmt;
 use std::io::Write;
 use std::io::Read;
@@ -59,13 +60,13 @@ impl<Left: BinarySerializable, Right: BinarySerializable> BinarySerializable for
 
 impl BinarySerializable for u32 {
     fn serialize(&self, writer: &mut Write) -> io::Result<usize> {
-        writer.write_u32::<NativeEndian>(*self)
+        writer.write_u32::<Endianness>(*self)
               .map(|_| 4)
               .map_err(convert_byte_order_error)
     }
 
     fn deserialize(reader: &mut Read) -> io::Result<u32> {
-        reader.read_u32::<NativeEndian>()
+        reader.read_u32::<Endianness>()
               .map_err(convert_byte_order_error)
     }
 }
@@ -73,12 +74,12 @@ impl BinarySerializable for u32 {
 
 impl BinarySerializable for u64 {
     fn serialize(&self, writer: &mut Write) -> io::Result<usize> {
-        writer.write_u64::<NativeEndian>(*self)
+        writer.write_u64::<Endianness>(*self)
               .map(|_| 8)
               .map_err(convert_byte_order_error)
     }
     fn deserialize(reader: &mut Read) -> io::Result<u64> {
-        reader.read_u64::<NativeEndian>()
+        reader.read_u64::<Endianness>()
               .map_err(convert_byte_order_error)
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/fastfield/mod.rs b/src/fastfield/mod.rs
index a79819347..eedadae65 100644
--- a/src/fastfield/mod.rs
+++ b/src/fastfield/mod.rs
@@ -22,8 +22,6 @@ pub use self::serializer::FastFieldSerializer;
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-
-    use common::compute_num_bits;
     use super::*;
     use schema::Field;
     use std::path::Path;
diff --git a/src/fastfield/serializer.rs b/src/fastfield/serializer.rs
index b7e1b092c..13e71b239 100644
--- a/src/fastfield/serializer.rs
+++ b/src/fastfield/serializer.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ use common::BinarySerializable;
 use directory::WritePtr;
 use schema::Field;
 use common::compute_num_bits;
+use std::io;
+use std::io::{Write, Seek, SeekFrom};
 
 
 /// `FastFieldSerializer` is in charge of serializing