Generating compressed data streams with lookback pre-fetch instructions for pre-fetching decompressed data from a lookback buffer

A method for generating a compressed data stream with lookback pre-fetch instructions, comprising:

• receiving an uncompressed data stream comprising a plurality of data blocks;
• generating a compressed data stream from the uncompressed data stream, wherein generating comprises:
• determining if a current data block of the plurality of data blocks in the uncompressed data stream was previously compressed by a compression engine;
• and
• responsive to determining that the current data block of the plurality of data blocks was previously compressed by the compression engine, inserting a lookback instruction corresponding to the current data block into the compressed data stream, wherein the lookback instruction comprises a lookback buffer index that points to an entry in a lookback buffer that stores data to be provided during decompression of the lookback instruction;
• and
• moving the lookback buffer index corresponding to each lookback instruction in the compressed data stream to a corresponding lookback pre-fetch instruction in the compressed data stream that is scheduled to be accessed before a corresponding lookback instruction during decompression.

A data compression system, comprising:

• a means for receiving an uncompressed data stream comprising a plurality of data blocks;
• a means for generating a compressed data stream from the uncompressed data stream, comprising;
• a means for determining if a current data block of the plurality of data blocks in the uncompressed data stream was previously compressed by the means for generating the compressed data stream;
• and
• responsive to determining that the current data block of the plurality of data blocks was previously compressed by the means for generating the compressed data stream, a means for inserting a lookback instruction corresponding to the current data block into the compressed data stream, wherein the lookback instruction comprises a lookback buffer index that points to an entry in a lookback buffer that stores data to be provided during decompression of the lookback instruction;
• and
• a means for moving the lookback buffer index corresponding to each lookback instruction in the compressed data stream to a corresponding lookback pre-fetch instruction in the compressed data stream that is scheduled to be accessed before a corresponding lookback instruction during decompression.

A processing system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a data decompression system configured to decompress a compressed data stream;
• a lookback buffer comprised of lower level memory that is placed separately from the data decompression system;
• and
• a data compression system, comprising:
• a data stream input circuit configured to receive an uncompressed data stream comprising a plurality of data blocks;
• and
• a compression engine configured to:
• generate the compressed data stream from the uncompressed data stream by being configured to;
• determine if a current data block of the plurality of data blocks in the uncompressed data stream was previously compressed by the compression engine;
• and
• responsive to determining that the current data block of the plurality of data blocks was previously compressed by the compression engine, insert a lookback instruction corresponding to the current data block into the compressed data stream, wherein the lookback instruction comprises a lookback buffer index that points to an entry in the lookback buffer that stores data to be provided during decompression of the lookback instruction;
• and
• move the lookback buffer index corresponding to each lookback instruction in the compressed data stream to a corresponding lookback pre-fetch instruction in the compressed data stream that is scheduled to be accessed before a corresponding lookback instruction during decompression.