Patent ID: 7961195

Claim:
A method of compressing and decompressing data, said method comprising: reducing a first multi-bit value comprising N+1 bits and a second multi-bit value comprising N+1 bits to respective first and second strings of N bits each; storing said first and second strings of N bits in a particular order relative to one another in a memory-resident compression block; and using said particular order in which said first and second strings of N bits are stored in said compression block to derive a first single-bit value, wherein said first single-bit value has one binary value if said first multi-bit value is stored before said second multi-bit value in said compression block and otherwise said first single-bit value has the other binary value, wherein said first single-bit value is appended as the least significant bit of one of said first and second strings of N bits to reconstruct said one of said first and second strings as N+1 bits.