Gigabyte per second streaming lossless data compression hardware based on a configurable variable-geometry CAM dictionary

Abstract

A high-throughput lossless data compression IP core built around a CAM-based dictionary whose number of available entries and data word width adjust to the characteristics of the incoming data stream is presented. These two features enhance model adaptation to the input data, improving compression efficiency, and enable greater throughputs as a multiplicity of bytes can be processed per cycle. A parsing mechanism adjusts the width of dictionary words to natural words while the length of the dictionary grows from an initial empty state to a maximum value defined as a run-time configuration parameter. The compressor/decompressor architecture was prototyped on an FPGA-based PCI board. An ASIC hard-macro was subsequently implemented and achieved a throughput of more than 1 gigabyte per second when clocking at 277 MHz on a high-performance, 0.13 µm, eight-layer copper CMOS process.