Paper Title
Compression Of FPGA Bitstreams Using A Novel Bitmask And RLE Algorithm
Abstract
The configuration file size of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) has increased rapidly. Thus, compression
techniques are used to decrease the size of bitstreams. Two parameters are employed to measure compression, namely, com-
pression ratio (CR) and decompression speed. Existing studies in this field have focused on two directions: small CR with
slow decompression speed, and fast decompression speed at the cost of CR. This paper proposes a novel decode-aware com-
pression technique with small compression ratio and minimal decompression time. The paper contributes to the literature by
1) proposing a novel dictionary selection algorithm that can avoid dictionary repetition, and 2) introducing an improved pa-
rameter selection that can provide a better CR. The experimental results showed that our approach outperforms the existing
compression maximum of 15% in terms of compression ratio. Moreover, the decompression hardware can operate at
330 MHZ on a Virtex-5 FPGA.
Keyword- FPGA, Bitstream, Compression, Dictionary Compression