US 2010/0146246 A1Published application

Method and Apparatus for Decompression of Block Compressed Data

AssigneeGlobalfoundries Inc.

InventorMichael Frank

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Abstract

System and method for decompressing data. A compressed data stream including contiguous variable length blocks is received, each block including multiple contiguous variable length data fields and a tag portion that includes multiple contiguous tag fields corresponding respectively to the data fields. Each tag field stores a tag value specifying a size of a respective field in the block. A current variable length block is stored. A single machine instruction of a processor is executed that analyzes the tag portion of the current block, and creates a control pattern, storing the control pattern in a first register of the processor. The control pattern is configured to unpack the variable length data fields of the current variable length block into corresponding uniform data fields. The contiguous variable length data fields of the current variable length block are decompressed using the control pattern, thereby decompressing the compressed data stream.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method for decompressing data, comprising:

receiving a compressed data stream comprising one or more contiguous variable length blocks, wherein each variable length block comprises:
a plurality of contiguous variable length data fields;
and
a tag portion, comprising a plurality of contiguous tag fields corresponding respectively to the plurality of variable length data fields, wherein each tag field stores a tag value specifying a size of a respective variable length data field in the variable length block;
storing a current variable length block of the one or more contiguous variable length data blocks;
executing a single machine instruction of a processor, wherein said executing comprises:
analyzing the tag portion of the current variable length block;
creating a control pattern and storing the control pattern in a first register of the processor, wherein the control pattern is configured to unpack the variable length data fields of the current variable length block into corresponding uniform data fields;
decompressing the plurality of contiguous variable length data fields of the current variable length block using the control pattern, wherein said decompressing operates to decompress the compressed data stream.

6 more elements

A processor, comprising:

an input configured to receive a compressed data stream comprising one or more contiguous variable length blocks, wherein each variable length block comprises:
a plurality of contiguous variable length data fields;
and
a tag portion, comprising a plurality of contiguous tag fields corresponding respectively to the plurality of variable length data fields, wherein each tag field stores a tag value specifying a size of a respective variable length data field in the data block;
a first register for storing a current variable length block of the one or more contiguous variable length data blocks;
an execution unit configured to execute a single first machine instruction of the processor to:
analyze the tag portion of the current variable length block;
create a control pattern and store the control pattern in a second register of the processor, wherein the control pattern is configured to unpack the variable length data fields of the current variable length block into corresponding uniform data fields;
wherein the execution unit is further configured to execute one or more second machine instructions to decompress the plurality of contiguous variable length data fields of the current variable length block using the control pattern, wherein said decompressing operates to decompress the compressed data stream.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.