DATA COMPRESSION FOR NETWORK PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT WITH THE AID OF CONTENT-ADDRESSABLE MEMORY

RESEARCHERS ARE STUDYING THE FEASIBILITY OF USING A PROGRAMMABLE CONTENT-ADDRESSABLE MEMORY AS AN EFFICIENT HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA COMPRESSION/DECOMPRESSION. THE EXPECTED ADVANTAGES ARE: SPEED GREATER THAN THAT ACHIEVED WITH THE BEST SPECIALIZED COMPRESSION HARDWARE, IMPROVED FLEXIBILITY, AND COST EFFECTIVENESS. DATA COMPRESSION IS WIDELY RECOGNIZED AS A USEFUL TECHNIQUE IN THE CONSERVATION OF DISK SPACE, PARTICULARLY AS PERSONAL COMPUTERS DEVELOP INTO MULTIMEDIA WORK STATIONS, HANDLING IMAGES AND SOUND, AS WELL AS CONVENTIONAL SOURCE, OBJECT, AND DATA FILES. IT HAS RECENTLY COME INTO USE IN DATA TRANSMISSION, AS A FEATURE OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE MODEMS, AND ROUGHLY DOUBLES THEIR EFFECTIVE DATA RATES. THERE IS SCOPE FOR EXTENDING COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES TO HIGH-SPEED LOCAL AREA NETWORKS, BUT THERE ARE MAJOR BOTTLENECKS IN CARRYING OUT COMPRESSION AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, DECOMPRESSION, AT THE RATES REQUIRED. COMPRESSION METHODS DIVIDE INTO LOSSY AND LOSSLESS ALTERNATIVES. THIS RESEARCH CONCENTRATES ON LOSSLESS COMPRESSION BECAUSE IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR NETWORK APPLICATIONS. TO OBTAIN HIGHER PERFORMANCE, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CONTENT-ADDRESSABLE MEMORY ARE BEING INVESTIGATED.