Let’s look under the hood at decompression

The concept of data compression gets a lot of airtime. It's fair to say that "compression" often refers to both ends of the process -  compression, during which a file is made smaller, and decompression, during which a file is "rebuilt" to its original, full-sized state. But let's give decompression a little bit of attention for its own sake.

Compressed files usually need to be restored to be used. Even a PNG file works this way - it'll be decompressed into pixels as it's being loaded for display. Let's look a little more closely. When a PNG is compressed, repeated data (like a pixel of the same color value) is just referred back to the initial instance. You can see how this would quickly save space. The decoder, or system that's decompressing the file, will refer back to a table that functions like a dictionary as it reads the data from the compressed file. Decompression is often quicker than compression as it has a simpler task - it reads pointers and reassembles from those pointers.

Decompression often happens many, many times for each compressed file. For example, a musician may compress an audio file and upload it. That's one compression event. But then thousands of people download and decompress that single file. That’s thousands of decompression events. Even though we may not think about it that much because it happens in the background (versus compression, which we often take a conscious step to do), decompression is just as key as compression to the soundness of your file.

For each compression technique that's out there, there's a partner decompression technique. It'll use a different algorithm than the one used for compression. As long as it's a lossless technique, it'll be perfectly harmonised with the compression algorithm to ensure that your file ends up just how it was. Because, after all, a file that's been compressed losslessly will also be decompressed losslessly.

CompressionX knows that decompression deserves the same careful handling as compression. Our next-level technology compresses files of any size at an average rate of 65%, all with 0% loss to the integrity of your data on decompression. You can count on this integrity thanks to our groundbreaking model, which was triggered by an idea - how small can you actually go when compressing a file? How close to pure efficiency can you come? CompressionX’s patented model is based on years of mathematical research and backed up by stress tests and peer reviews from accomplished mathematicians. We’re proud to stand behind our model, and invite you to try CompressionX for free today to see for yourself why we’re shaking up the compression market.

References

• https://www.ijariit.com/manuscripts/v10i1/V10I1-1163.pdf
• https://www.techopedia.com/definition/14330/decompression
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/decompression-algorithm#:~:text=A%20decompression%20algorithm%20is%20defined,based%20on%20the%20token%20components.
• https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6v3l1j/comment/dlxqgwt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button