Hybrid Compression Acceleration for Dynamic Huffman Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hardware accelerators for data compression rely on static Huffman encoding due to complexity and performance issues, resulting in suboptimal compression ratios and slower throughput compared to software-based dynamic Huffman encoding.
Innovation Solution
A hybrid method that splits compression tasks between hardware and software, using hardware accelerators for CRC, LZ77 compression, and static Huffman tree encoding, while software builds dynamic Huffman trees and decides whether to invoke additional hardware acceleration for improved compression efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If hardware accelerators use static Huffman encoding, then hardware complexity is reduced and processing speed is improved, but compression ratio deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The compression task is divided into two segments: static Huffman encoding performed by hardware accelerator for speed, and dynamic Huffman encoding performed by software for optimal compression ratio. This segmentation allows each component to operate in its optimal mode without compromising overall performance
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges hardware and software processing approaches by combining the fast static Huffman encoding of hardware accelerators with the optimal dynamic Huffman encoding of software, creating a hybrid system that achieves both speed and compression efficiency
2Manufacturing precision
If hardware accelerators implement dynamic Huffman encoding, then compression ratio is improved, but hardware complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The complex dynamic Huffman encoding function is extracted from the hardware accelerator and assigned to software processing. This extraction reduces hardware complexity while maintaining the capability to achieve optimal compression ratios when needed
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary approach where static Huffman encoding is performed in hardware and dynamic Huffman encoding is performed in software, acting as a mediator between the speed requirements of hardware and the compression optimization requirements of dynamic encoding
3Manufacturing precision
If all compression tasks are performed in software, then flexibility and compression ratio are maintained, but processing speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The compression workload is segmented between software and hardware, with time-critical static Huffman encoding operations assigned to hardware accelerators and more flexible dynamic Huffman encoding operations assigned to software, optimizing both speed and flexibility
Solution Approach 2:
Static Huffman encoding is performed as a preliminary action in hardware before dynamic Huffman encoding is applied in software, allowing the system to benefit from fast hardware processing for the initial compression stage
Data Source
AI summary
A hybrid mechanism whereby hardware acceleration is combined with software such that the compression rate achieved is significantly increased while maintaining the original compression ratio (e.g., using full DHT and not SHT or an approximation). The compression acceleration mechanism is applicable to a hardware accelerator tightly coupled with the general purpose processor. The compression task is divided and parallelized between hardware and software wherein each compression task is split into two acceleration requests: a first request that performs SHT encoding using hardware acceleration and provides post-LZ frequency statistics; and a second request that performs SHT decoding and DHT encoding using the DHT generated in software.