Hardware apparatuses and methods for memory compression and decompression

A method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of sections of a block of data from a memory to compress with a hardware compression engine;
• determining with the hardware compression engine when each section of the plurality of sections is one of a zero value, a full match to an entry in a dictionary comprising a plurality of entries with a value and an index, a partial match to an entry in the dictionary, and a no match to any entry in the dictionary;
• encoding with the hardware compression engine a tag for each section to indicate the one of the zero value, the full match, the partial match, and the no match;
• encoding with the hardware compression engine a literal when the section is the no match, an index to the entry in the dictionary when the section is the full match, and an index to the entry in the dictionary and non-matching bits when the section is the partial match;
• and
• updating with the hardware compression engine an entry in the dictionary with a value of a section when the section is the no match.

A non-transitory machine readable medium that stores code that when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform a method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of sections of a block of data from a memory to compress with a hardware compression engine;
• determining with the hardware compression engine when each section of the plurality of sections is one of a zero value, a full match to an entry in a dictionary comprising a plurality of entries with a value and an index, a partial match to an entry in the dictionary, and a no match to any entry in the dictionary;
• encoding with the hardware compression engine a tag for each section to indicate the one of the zero value, the full match, the partial match, and the no match;
• encoding with the hardware compression engine a literal when the section is the no match, an index to the entry in the dictionary when the section is the full match, and an index to the entry in the dictionary and non-matching bits when the section is the partial match;
• and
• updating with the hardware compression engine an entry in the dictionary with a value of a section when the section is the no match.