System and methods for accelerated data storage and retrieval

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing accelerated data storage and retrieval utilizing lossless and/or lossy data compression and decompression. A data storage accelerator includes one or a plurality of high speed data compression encoders that are configured to simultaneously or sequentially losslessly or lossy compress data at a rate equivalent to or faster than the transmission rate of an input data stream. The compressed data is subsequently stored in a target memory or other storage device whose input data storage bandwidth is lower than the original input data stream bandwidth. Similarly, a data retrieval accelerator includes one or a plurality of high speed data decompression decoders that are configured to simultaneously or sequentially losslessly or lossy decompress data at a rate equivalent to or faster than the input data stream from the target memory or storage device. The decompressed data is then output at rate data that is greater than the output rate from the target memory or data storage device. The data storage and retrieval accelerator method and system may employed: in a disk storage adapter to reduce the time required to store and retrieve data from computer to disk; in conjunction with random access memory to reduce the time required to store and retrieve data from random access memory; in a display controller to reduce the time required to send display data to the display controller or processor; and/or in an input/output controller to reduce the time required to store, retrieve, or transmit data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a software program of instructions executable by at least one machine to perform a method for providing accelerated data storage, said method comprising:
 (a) receiving input digital data at an input data transmission rate which is greater than an output data transmission rate to a target storage device, the input digital data comprising a plurality of data blocks and including disparate data types;   for respective data blocks in the plurality of data blocks:
 (b) compressing, using software, the data block with a plurality of encoders to provide a plurality of compressed data blocks; 
 (c) determining a compression ratio associated with each of the plurality of compressed data blocks; 
 (d) selecting based, at least in part, on the determined compression ratios, either the data block or one of the plurality of compressed data blocks to include in output digital data, the selecting comprising:
 (i) when at least one of the plurality of compressed data blocks has a determined compression ratio that exceeds a compression ratio threshold, selecting a compressed data block having a determined compression ratio that exceeds the compression ratio threshold to include in the output digital data, and 
 (ii) when none of the plurality of compressed data blocks has a determined compression ratio that exceeds the compression ratio threshold, selecting the data block as received to include in the output digital data; 
 
   (e) transmitting the output digital data to the target storage device at the output data transmission rate, wherein the combined length of time required for performing said compressing and said transmitting the output digital data to the target storage device is less than a length of time required for transmitting the input digital data to the target storage device; and   (f) adjusting the compression ratio threshold in response to a change in the output data transmission rate.