Compressed data structure and apparatus and method related thereto

A waveform storage processing apparatus comprising:

• a storage section having a storage area specified with a plurality of addresses each having a data width of n bits;
• a segmentation section that segments input waveform data into a plurality of frames;
• a compression section that, for each of the frames, performs a compression process on the waveform data to thereby generate compressed waveform data of m divided by bits;
• an auxiliary information generation section that, for each of the frames, generates auxiliary information including compression information indicative of a form of the compression process performed on the frame;
• a to-be-written data formation section that, for each of the frames, forms a predetermined number j of to-be-written data of n bits on the basis of data of m bits formed by retrieving samples of the compressed waveform data, k samples at a time, and data of n−m bits from of the auxiliary information of a next frame;
• and
• a writing section that sequentially writes the j to-be-written data, formed for each of the frames, to the storage area specified with the predetermined number j of successive addresses of said storage section.