FMS 2024: ZeroPoint Technologies zstd Decompression Hardware IP

ZeroPoint Technologies AB announces the availability of zstd decompression as a hardware IP.

This innovation brings the power and efficiency of the zstd algorithm to hardware, providing enhanced performance and energy efficiency for semiconductor applications. With this announcement, the company offers the only hardware-accelerated solution available for the zstd algorithm.

As software-based zstd decompression is already widely used by hyperscalers, and supported natively by many of the most widely used databases, the company expects the primary customer use cases for this new hardware-accelerated offering will focus on storage in enterprise and hyperscale implementations, meaningfully increasing the decompression speed of stored data, and as a result increasing data bandwidth (by 1.5-2x) compared to software-based implementations.

Critically, as with all of ZeroPoint’s hardware-accelerated optimization solutions, the zstd offering also enables customers to reclaim the CPU cycles formally associated with software-based implementations of zstd decompression – in some cases enabling 3-5% of overall CPU cycles to be reclaimed, and monetized.

Background on zstd compression algorithm
The zstd (Zstandard) compression algorithm is an advanced, lossless data compression technology. It has quickly become a popular choice for a variety of applications due to its high compression ratios, fast compression and decompression speeds, and efficient resource usage. Zstd is designed to offer the flexibility of adjusting compression levels, making it suitable for different performance needs, ranging from real-time applications to large data archival.

Advantages of zstd decompression hardware IP:

• High compression ratios: Achieves reduction in data size, saving storage space and bandwidth.
• Fast Decompression: Ensures quick access to compressed data, enhancing performance in data-intensive applications.
• Increased performance: Offloading decompression tasks to dedicated hardware significantly boosts data processing speeds.
• Reduced CPU load: Frees up the CPU to handle other critical tasks, improving overall system efficiency.
• Energy efficiency: Hardware decompression is more power-efficient than software-based solutions, ideal for energy-conscious applications.
• Scalability: Suitable for a range of devices, from IoT devices to high-performance computing systems.
• Compatibility: Easy to integrate. Compatible with SW based LZ4 compression and decompression.

Potential applications
The zstd decompression hardware IP can be integrated into various applications, providing performance and efficiency improvements:

• ZRAM/ZSWAP: Replace software-based decompression with hardware accelerated decompression. Same functionality, more performance/watt. 
• Storage systems: Enhance the performance of storage solutions by accelerating data retrieval times.
• Big data analytics: Speed up the processing of large datasets, enabling faster insights and decision-making.
• Cloud services: Improve the efficiency of cloud storage and computing, reducing latency and operating costs.
• Network appliances: Increase the throughput of network devices by accelerating data decompression.
• Consumer electronics: Enhance user experience in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and multimedia players by speeding up data access.
• Embedded systems: Suitable for resource-constrained environments, providing efficient decompression capabilities without taxing the CPU.