Compressed and secure dram data storage with reduced read-modify-write operations

A computer system, comprising:

• a memory having a burst length;
• a compression engine configured to compress source data according to a compression ratio to form compressed data;
• a metadata processor configured to process the compressed data in the metadata processor to form metadata, wherein the metadata has a size smaller than the burst length, generate autofill data responsive to the compression ratio, and concatenate the metadata and the autofill data to form a metadata burst having a same size as the burst length;
• and
• a memory controller configured to write the metadata burst to the memory.

A computer-readable medium including instructions that when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to:

• compress source data in a compression engine according to a compression ratio to form compressed data;
• process the compressed data to form metadata, wherein the metadata has a size smaller than a burst length of a memory;
• generate autofill data responsive to the compression ratio;
• concatenate the metadata and the autofill data to form a metadata burst having a same size as the burst length;
• and
• write the metadata burst to the memory.