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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L54530/01
Title: COMPRESSED MAIN MEMORY: A FEASIBILITY STUDY
Principal Investigator: Jones, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Csem Neuchatel
Department: Electronic, Electrical & Systems Enginee
Organisation: Loughborough University
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 15 October 1997 Ends: 14 October 1999 Value (£): 86,481
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Energy Efficiency Parallel Computing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
We wish to assess whether it is feasible to introduce the storage of compressed information in a computer system at the main memory level. Currently, information stored in tape, disk and solid-state disk is compressed. However, above this level, data is stored in an uncompressed form. There are a number of benefits from moving compression one-level up in the memory hierarchy. Primarily, because the memory hierarchy is the key factor in computing systems performance and hence he mismatch between disk and CPU speeds is growing ever greater.Storing program and data information in main memory in compressed form, would reduce disk accesses and increase memory bandwidth, thereby increasing performance. Cost and power consumption are also improved.The recent availability of high-speed lossless data compressor hardware, now makes this approach conceivable.The project aims to model the performance impact main memory compression would have and to identify effective ways of managing and compressing instructions and data.
Key Findings
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Summary
Date Materialised
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Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.lboro.ac.uk