On the design and implementation of a lossless data compression and decompression chip

A lossless data compression and decompression (LDCD) algorithm based on the notion of textural substitution has been implemented in silicon using a linear systolic array architecture. This algorithm employs a model in which the encoder and decoder each have a finite amount of memory which is referred to as the dictionary. Compression is achieved by finding matches between the dictionary and the input data stream whereby a substitution is made in the data stream by an index referencing the corresponding dictionary entry. The LDCD system is built using 30 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), each containing 126 identical processing elements (PEs) which perform both the encoding and decoding function at clock rates up to 20 MHz.<
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