Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for managing multiple dictionaries in content addressable memory based data compression

US5373290A · kind A · utility

175Cited by
3References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 23, 1992
Grant dateDec 13, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 23, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M7/3088
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A class of lossless data compression algorithms use a memory-based dictionary of finite size to facilitate the compression and decompression of data. To reduce the loss in data compression caused by dictionary resets, a standby dictionary is used to store a subset of encoded data entries previously stored in a current dictionary. In a second aspect of the invention, data is compressed/decompressed according to the address location of data entries contained within a dictionary built in a content addressable memory (CAM). In a third aspect of the invention, the minimum memory/high compression capacity of the standby dictionary scheme is combined with the fast single-cycle per character encoding/decoding capacity of the CAM circuit. The circuit uses multiple dictionaries within the storage locations of a CAM to reduce the amount of memory required to provide a high data compression ratio.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.