Design and implementation of a data compression scheme: A partial matching approach

Data compression is an essential process due to the need to reduce the average time required to send messages and reduce the data size for storage purposes. There is a vital need for lossless compression especially for text and binary compression because it is important to ensure that the restructured text is identical to the original text. The predictive by partial matching (PPM) data compression scheme has set the performance standard in lossless compression throughout the past decade. PPM is chosen as it is capable of very good compression on a variety of data. In this paper, we present the realization of data compression using PPM on Altera FLEX10K FPGA device that allows for efficient hardware implementation. The PPM algorithm for binary data compression was successfully written and modeled in VHDL. The design is followed by the timing analysis and circuit synthesis for the validation, functionality and performance of the designated circuit which supports the practicality, advantages and effectiveness of the proposed hardware realization for the application. The designed was verified using both 16-bit input and 32-bit input. The hardware prototype utilized 1164 logic cells with a maximum system frequency of 95.3 MHz.