Patent ID: 8847798

Claim:
A method of data compression, the method comprising: obtaining a data set comprising a sequence of fixed-length data blocks, each data block comprising the same predetermined number of data items; partitioning said data set into one or more fixed-length groups each comprising the same number of data blocks; and performing data compression on one or more groups of data blocks by: associating a control data item with each of said blocks, said control data item having a value dependent upon whether a block contains entirely data items having the same specified value or whether a block contains at least one data item having a value different from said specified value; generating a control vector comprising the control data items assigned to each of said blocks within a group; removing data blocks comprising entirely data items having said specified value; compressing data blocks comprising at least one data item having a value different from said specified value using a fixed-rate compression scheme; and providing a compressed data stream comprising said compressed data blocks; and providing an associated control vector stream to enable control of said compressed data stream.