Data compression method and apparatus with optimized transitions between compressed and uncompressed modes

Abstract

A method of compressing a stream of raw data including the steps of providing a memory device having compression active state and a compression inactive state, inputting a raw data segment into the memory device, generating a compressed data segment based on the raw data segment, creating output data based on the compressed data segment when the memory device is in the compression active state, otherwise based on the raw data segment when in the memory device is the compression inactive state, calculating a compression coefficient, and setting the state of the memory device based on the compression coefficient, such that compressed data is output only when compression has recently proven effective, and raw data is output when compression has recently proven ineffective. The method may also include decompression of the output data.

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