Abstract: A network device, also referred to as the Compression Enhanced Network Processor (CENP), with embedded parallel (or fast serial) compression and/or decompression capability. The network device may be a network processor based multi-ported switch, bridge, router, hub, or other device. The CENP may provide improved data density, efficiency and bandwidth for each port of a multi-port network switch. In one embodiment, the CENP may comprise a network processor core, a memory management unit, a memory buffer (e.g., an SRAM memory buffer), and a system memory. The CENP may comprise a compression and decompression engine. In one embodiment, the memory management unit comprises the compression and decompression engine, and thus may be referred to as a Compression Enhanced Memory Controller Unit (CEMCU).

Abstract: A system and method for managing a functional unit in a system using a data movement engine. An exemplary system may comprise a CPU coupled to a memory controller. The memory controller may include or couple to a data movement engine (DME). The memory controller may in turn couple to a system memory or other device which includes at least one functional unit. The DME may operate to transfer data to/from the system memory and/or the functional unit, as described herein. In one embodiment, the DME may also include multiple DME channels or multiple DME contexts. The DME may operate to direct the functional unit to perform operations on data in the system memory. For example, the DME may read source data from the system memory, the DME may then write the source data to the functional unit, the functional unit may operate on the data to produce modified data, the DME may then read the modified data from the functional unit, and the DME may then write the modified data to a destination in the system memory.

Abstract: Embodiments of a compression/decompression (codec) system may include a plurality of parallel data compression and/or parallel data decompression engines designed for the reduction of data bandwidth and storage requirements and for compressing/decompressing data. The plurality of compression/decompression engines may each implement a parallel lossless data compression/decompression algorithm. The codec system may split incoming uncompressed or compressed data up among the plurality of compression/decompression engines. Each of the plurality of compression/decompression engines may compress or decompress a particular part of the data. The codec system may then merge the portions of compressed or uncompressed data output from the plurality of compression/decompression engines. The codec system may implement a method for performing parallel data compression and/or decompression designed to process stream data at more than a single byte or symbol at one time.