For quite some time, I’ve been keenly following developments in the world of compression, reading blog posts and lurking in forums. It’s always been something I’ve found interesting, but I haven’t really had much practical experience implementing general purpose compressors (most of the things I’ve done have been quite special purpose). I had a few weeks off over the Christmas break, so I decided to have a play with some fairly traditional LZ77/LZSS compressors, just to familiarize myself a bit with details of the implementation.

The work done over the break was fairly simplistic and well trodden ground. Sometimes it’s good just to instrument code like this, using simple histograms that you can read in the debugger/dump to the console and get a feel for what’s going on. Experimenting a little, trying a few things and building up more of an understanding.

About two weeks ago a few ideas clicked together and I decided to start a new experiment, building an SSE/x64 oriented LZSS format, with a decoder that can branchlessly decode up-to 32 matches per iteration, with a fair bit of the upfront logic done in parallel using SIMD. This is what I’ll be sharing in this blog post, along with associated code for three variants (LZSSE2, LZSSE4 and LZSSE8).

Note, this is an experiment mainly focused on the decompression, the compressors I’ve implemented aren’t great in terms of speed yet, because I haven’t really put any focus on optimizing them (not being the goal of the experiment). The LZSSE4 and LZSSE8 of the compressors aren’t too slow, but the LZSSE2 compressor is. It uses an optimal parse to test the compression levels achievable with the format, but the binary tree based matching it uses has some terrible pathological cases.

The ideas that clicked together were the threshold based encoding talked about by Charles Bloom here, the way Yann Collet’s LZ4 block format uses the highest value in fields to do variable length encoding and the way parallel SSE pop count implementations split apart the high and low nibbles of bytes and then use them to look-up values inside a register using the PSHUFB instruction (note, only LZSSE8 actually uses the PSHUFB to implement the logic I was originally thinking about, the other variants use binary logic).

Format Overview

The three formats implemented have a lot in common. They all use 32 nibble control words packed continuously in the stream, followed by either the offsets or literals for each word. Each nibble either flags a sequence of literals, or a match, based on a threshold. The length for the sequence of literals is encoded if below the threshold, the length of the match is encoded if above. When the nibble is set to 15, that indicates that the following nibble extends the match (and can’t encode literals). I’ve also used a small 64k window, with fixed 16 bit offsets. Each stream also must end with 16 literals (which are not encoded with controls).

One of the goals is that each control word maps to at most one SSE register width worth of data to copy, so that we don’t need an inner loop (or rep movsb) to copy data. The corresponding challenge, and the reason there are three variants, is trying to get each step in the decoding loop to shift as many bytes as possible on average to keep performance high (which goes hand in hand with compression ratios, as it reduces the relative overhead of the control nibbles).

In LZSSE2, the control values 0 and 1 represent a sequence of 1 and 2 literals respectively, while the control values 2 through to 15 represent a match length of 3 to 16. If the value of the match control is 15, the next nibble represents an additional 0 to 15 bytes that will be appended to the match (and the same with the next nibble after that and so on). This means that each literal has an overhead of either 2 or 4 bits, but that we can represent shorter matches (3 to 15 bytes) in 20 bits. These kind of matches tend to be quite common in a lot of data, especially text. The overhead for longer matches means we limit the maximal achievable compression ratio to a limit approaching 30x. Because there are only a couple of literals per control, this format isn’t great for data that doesn’t have a lot of matches, or that has long strings of literals between matches.

In LZSSE4, the control values 0 through to 3 represent sequences of 1 to 4 literals and the control values 4 through 15 represent matches of 4 to 15 bytes, but otherwise the format is the same. This format does better with longer strings of literals and is also more suitable to be paired up with a faster/lower ratio compressor. The longer minimum match length works better with less exhaustive hash based matching.

LZSSE8 is aimed at lower compression scenarios with more literals again, the control values 0 to 7 represent runs of 1 to 8 literals and the control values 8 to 15 represent matches of 4 to 11 bytes. Also, LZSSE8 needs match offsets greater than 8 bytes from the current cursor (LZSSE8 still beats LZSSE4 on some files in compression ratio, despite the extra restrictions). Again, other than that, the format is the same.

Offsets and literals use an xor encoding, where offsets are xor’d against the previously read offset and literals are xor’d against the data at the previous match offset in the decompressed stream. This allows us to do some optimizations that we’ll talk about later on.

We also restrict the kind of overlapping matches allowed. Matches are only allowed to overlap if the offset is greater than one SSE register width away from the current output cursor.

The Compressors

The compressor for LZSSE2 uses a variant of the Storer-Szymanski optimal parse algorithm and a binary search tree for finding matches. The implementation is quite naive, but apart from quirks with short offsets, it should always find the longest match. It does have some pathological binary tree problems when you have long runs of the same character, a well known problem, so some files compress very slowly. At it’s maximum level, it should achieve the best possible compression for this format (although, there are some caveats with very small offsets). Note that this slow performance is not indicative of anything inherent in LZSSE2, a better matching algorithm would allow the codec to be competitive for compression speed.

The LZSSE4 and LZSSE8 compressors uses a single entry hash and a greedy parse, they’re designed to be sloppy and fast. That said, there are some files where matches are rare enough that the sloppy matching/parses of LZSSE8 actually beat the LZSSE2 optimal parse on compression ratio.

Neither is particularly optimized for speed at the moment (although, SSE is used for testing matches). These are basically built for testing out the performance of the format and the decompression implementations.

The Decompression Implementation

This is where things get interesting. Firstly, a comment on this code; it uses macros and gotos, which are things that I wouldn’t usually recommend. It also has largish unrolled loops, which aren’t always wise (but work well in this case). Finally, it’s quite tricky to follow and beaten to make the compiler (in this case, Visual Studio 2015; note, this code has not been tested yet with any other compiler and is definitely not ready for them yet) do what I want, which is no register spills and some quite specific instructions being generated (with an eye on the assembly listings). It’s also some of the code I’ve had the most fun writing in a long time, because it was a good puzzle.

It’s also important to note, this code is targeted at 64bit/SSE 4.1 and it eats pretty much all of the registers (and narrowly avoids spills). You’d probably want to do the implementation differently for targeting 32bit x86. I’m sure there are some wins to be had in the implementation. You could definitely trim the implementations back to only require SSSE3 (needed for the 8 bit variable shuffle) though, if you were keen (extracts and blends are fairly simple to emulate with SSE2 instructions).

One of the first things you might notice is that the main loop is implemented 3 times. The first loop has buffer checks for under-flowing the output buffer based on matches before the data. The second loop doesn’t have buffer checks and the third loop has both the underflow checks and overflow checks for the input and output buffers. The loops themselves have conditions on them that mean it’s impossible to overflow/underflow in the particular loop innards, because they are a “safe” distance away.

We’ll focus on the LZSSE2 implementation, because it’s a little bit simpler to explain. LZSSE4 and 8 are well commented though, so it should be possible to grok what’s going on.

Each iteration of the loop deals with 32 control nibbles, which is exactly what fits in one SSE register. We load that at the start of the loop, then split it into high and low nibbles:

__m128i controlBlock = _mm_loadu_si128( reinterpret_cast<const __m128i*>( inputCursor ) ); __m128i controlHi = _mm_and_si128( _mm_srli_epi32( controlBlock, CONTROL_BITS ), nibbleMask ); __m128i controlLo = _mm_and_si128( controlBlock, nibbleMask );

Then we threshold the control values to work out which is a literal or match (note, later this will possibly be ignored in the event of an extended match):

__m128i isLiteralHi = _mm_cmplt_epi8( controlHi, literalsPerControl ); __m128i isLiteralLo = _mm_cmplt_epi8( controlLo, literalsPerControl );

We also work out if the controls will cause the next control to be an extended match. We call this the “carry”, because it essentially shifts up to the next control.

__m128i carryLo = _mm_cmpeq_epi8( controlLo, nibbleMask ); __m128i carryHi = _mm_cmpeq_epi8( controlHi, nibbleMask );

Now, the low carry will be used with the high controls and the high carry will be used with the low controls, but we’ll need to shift the high carry along one to be used with the low controls after the high ones. Because this would leave a gap of one, we also need a memory to remember the previous set of high carries.

__m128i shiftedCarryHi = _mm_alignr_epi8( carryHi, previousCarryHi, 15 ); previousCarryHi = carryHi;

Next, we’ll calculate the number of bytes that we’ll be outputting per control. To do this, we take the control and add one to it if the carry is not set. We actually use a subtraction of negative one, because SSE masks are the same as negative one. Note, in LZSSE8 the bytes out and bytes read stages are done via a lookup using the PSHUFB, where the values are stored in the high and low values of a register.

__m128i bytesOutLo = _mm_sub_epi8( controlLo, _mm_xor_si128( shiftedCarryHi, allSet ) ); __m128i bytesOutHi = _mm_sub_epi8( controlHi, _mm_xor_si128( carryLo, allSet ) );

Now we’ll calculate how many extra bytes we’re going to read from the input stream for each control. That will either be two for matches (the size of the offset), one or two for literals and zero for extended matches (when the carry is set). Note that the “literalsPerControl” value here is two, so we’re re-using it.

__m128i streamBytesReadLo = _mm_andnot_si128( shiftedCarryHi, _mm_min_epi8( literalsPerControl, bytesOutLo ) ); __m128i streamBytesReadHi = _mm_andnot_si128( carryLo, _mm_min_epi8( literalsPerControl, bytesOutHi ) );

This is followed by simple masks for whether we’re going to update the offset value (we will for initial matches, we won’t for literals or the extended match) and whether we are writing out literal data or match data:

__m128i readOffsetLo = _mm_xor_si128( _mm_or_si128( isLiteralLo, shiftedCarryHi ), allSet ); __m128i readOffsetHi = _mm_xor_si128( _mm_or_si128( isLiteralHi, carryLo ), allSet ); __m128i fromLiteralLo = _mm_andnot_si128( shiftedCarryHi, isLiteralLo ); __m128i fromLiteralHi = _mm_andnot_si128( carryLo, isLiteralHi );

After this point, we’re going to need some of these values in general purpose registers instead of SSE registers, so we read read out the bottom 64 bits (we’ll read out the top 64 bits in a second version of this later). In fact, when we do the step for handling each individual control, we’ll read the bottom 8 bits of these registers, then shift them 8 bits along (we’ll avoid angering the partial register stall demon by getting the compiler to generate sign and zero extension instructions).

Speaking of which, this is implemented with macros (because we do it 32 times in a loop), but now we’ll get on to the step for an individual control decoding (we’ll not include the buffer checks used in some loops). Here we show the step for low controls, high is very similar. Low and high steps are interleaved.

Part of the goal here is to provide enough interleaved chains of instructions that the compiler always has something to chew on, especially when we have to eat some latency on reads and writes.

First we read from the input stream (we’re doing this unconditionally to avoid a branch). We treat it as a 16 bit integer and then zero-extend it to size_t and load it into an SSE register. Note, there will be some latency between the two in the time the value takes to come from the (hopefully) L1 cache. We also load the value into an SSE register to be used as literals:

size_t inputWord = *reinterpret_cast<const uint16_t*>( inputCursor ); __m128i literals = _mm_cvtsi64_si128( inputWord );

Next, there is this beauty/monstrosity, which takes the bottom 8 bits of the “readOffsetLo” mask that we’ve copied into a GPR, sign extends it, converts it back to an unsigned integer, uses it to mask the inputWord, which could potentially be the offset, which is then xor’d with the previous offset. This will select the previous offset or update to the new offset, without a branch, and ends up being quicker than a mask and a cmov instruction, because it’s a shorter dependency chain from the load on the input word. This is why we require the offset to be pre-xor’d with the previous offset in the compression stage.

offset ^= static_cast<size_t>( static_cast<ptrdiff_t>( static_cast<int8_t>( readOffsetHalfLo ) ) ) & inputWord; readOffsetHalfLo >>= 8;

Here we broadcast the low byte of the from literal register (which we’re also shifting right by one byte each step) to get a mask across the entire width of a register:

__m128i fromLiteral = _mm_shuffle_epi8( fromLiteralLo, _mm_setzero_si128() ); fromLiteralLo = _mm_srli_si128( fromLiteralLo, 1 );

Load the match data:

const uint8_t* matchPointer = reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t*>( outputCursor - offset ); __m128i matchData = _mm_loadu_si128( reinterpret_cast<const __m128i*>( matchPointer ) );

Mask out the literals if we are doing a match and xor them against the potential match data. Note, the literals have been xor’d previously against the match data, so this is essentially an operation choosing between the literals and the match data. Then we’ll store the data to the output, note we’re always storing 16 bytes, regardless of the length of the actual output.

literals = _mm_and_si128( fromLiteral, literals ); __m128i toStore = _mm_xor_si128( matchData, literals ); _mm_storeu_si128( reinterpret_cast<__m128i*>( outputCursor ), toStore );

Finally, we bump along the input and output streams:

outputCursor += static_cast< uint8_t >( bytesOutHalfLo ); inputCursor += static_cast< uint8_t >( streamBytesReadHalfLo ); bytesOutHalfLo >>= 8; streamBytesReadHalfLo >>= 8;

Here’s a direct link to the code.

Results

To compare this to other similar codecs, I needed some benchmarks. To do this, I quickly ported lzbench to Visual Studio, dropping any codec I couldn’t easily get to compile. The changes required to get lzbench working with Visual Studio were fairly minor. The benchmarks here will be enwik8, because there are lots of publicly available results in the Large Text Compression Benchmark and the Silesia corpus (both as a tarball and the individual components). Note that we’ll mainly focus on decompression speed vs compression ratio here, because that’s the main target of this experiment at the moment. There is also a smaller benchmark done on enwik9, with competing codecs other than LZ4 variants dropped because enwik9 is a much larger file and ran out of benchmarking time. The specific machine used was a Haswell i7 4790 at stock clocks, running Windows 10 64 bit.

Here’s the results for enwik8, along with all the other compressors that would work with the Visual Studio lzbench build. LZSSE does very well on relatively compressible text like this, which will be one of the common themes in the results. LZSSE2 with the optimal parse provides particularly fast decompression relative to decompression ratio on these kind of files.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11392 MB/s 11411 MB/s 100000000 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1097 MB/s 11492 MB/s 100000000 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 567 MB/s 11348 MB/s 99889340 99.89 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 212 MB/s 758 MB/s 55174611 55.17 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 213 MB/s 760 MB/s 55123815 55.12 brieflz 1.1.0 95 MB/s 148 MB/s 43196165 43.20 crush 1.0 level 0 44 MB/s 235 MB/s 37294882 37.29 crush 1.0 level 1 3.03 MB/s 262 MB/s 32847751 32.85 crush 1.0 level 2 0.62 MB/s 268 MB/s 31699549 31.70 fastlz 0.1 level 1 249 MB/s 512 MB/s 55239233 55.24 fastlz 0.1 level 2 228 MB/s 501 MB/s 54163013 54.16 lz4 r131 440 MB/s 2623 MB/s 57262281 57.26 lz4fast r131 level 3 522 MB/s 2525 MB/s 63557747 63.56 lz4fast r131 level 17 1157 MB/s 3916 MB/s 86208275 86.21 lz4hc r131 level 1 119 MB/s 2389 MB/s 48870227 48.87 lz4hc r131 level 4 63 MB/s 2560 MB/s 43399178 43.40 lz4hc r131 level 9 33 MB/s 2612 MB/s 42210185 42.21 lz4hc r131 level 12 31 MB/s 2591 MB/s 42196886 42.20 lz4hc r131 level 16 31 MB/s 2605 MB/s 42196873 42.20 lzf 3.6 level 0 238 MB/s 542 MB/s 57695415 57.70 lzf 3.6 level 1 243 MB/s 576 MB/s 53945381 53.95 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 63 MB/s 439 MB/s 61116518 61.12 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 36 MB/s 433 MB/s 54351710 54.35 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 17 MB/s 459 MB/s 50253081 50.25 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 6.13 MB/s 517 MB/s 46199002 46.20 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 8.68 MB/s 183 MB/s 37932690 37.93 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.48 MB/s 265 MB/s 29545382 29.55 lzjb 2010 239 MB/s 418 MB/s 68711273 68.71 lzma 9.38 level 0 19 MB/s 62 MB/s 36836091 36.84 lzma 9.38 level 2 16 MB/s 75 MB/s 33411186 33.41 lzma 9.38 level 4 9.86 MB/s 82 MB/s 32197921 32.20 lzma 9.38 level 5 1.71 MB/s 99 MB/s 25895800 25.90 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 228 MB/s 427 MB/s 59669043 59.67 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 217 MB/s 484 MB/s 59448006 59.45 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 235 MB/s 489 MB/s 55312164 55.31 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 251 MB/s 458 MB/s 52468327 52.47 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 123 MB/s 467 MB/s 47874203 47.87 lzsse4 0.1 212 MB/s 3128 MB/s 47108403 47.11 lzsse8 0.1 214 MB/s 3107 MB/s 47249359 47.25 lzsse2 0.1 2.88 MB/s 3759 MB/s 38060594 38.06 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 328 MB/s 515 MB/s 52334371 52.33 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 168 MB/s 497 MB/s 45883075 45.88 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 43 MB/s 689 MB/s 44789793 44.79 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 71 MB/s 326 MB/s 53016707 53.02 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 47 MB/s 342 MB/s 48214192 48.21 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 29 MB/s 334 MB/s 46089022 46.09 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 21 MB/s 324 MB/s 44959032 44.96 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 117 MB/s 1767 MB/s 54965417 54.97 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 95 MB/s 1811 MB/s 53844726 53.84 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 88 MB/s 1817 MB/s 53654121 53.65 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 65 MB/s 303 MB/s 42298774 42.30 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 21 MB/s 309 MB/s 36548921 36.55 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 17 MB/s 308 MB/s 36475792 36.48 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 262 MB/s 493 MB/s 40822932 40.82 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 192 MB/s 393 MB/s 37789941 37.79 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 91 MB/s 341 MB/s 35228432 35.23 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 25 MB/s 382 MB/s 31789698 31.79 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 7.98 MB/s 382 MB/s 30761914 30.76 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 3.58 MB/s 340 MB/s 28907539 28.91 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 2.20 MB/s 241 MB/s 27195437 27.20 shrinker 0.1 296 MB/s 806 MB/s 51493020 51.49 wflz 2015-09-16 193 MB/s 740 MB/s 63521814 63.52 lzmat 1.01 32 MB/s 374 MB/s 41270839 41.27

For some more mixed results, the silesia corpus as a tar shows that on quite varied data the decompression speed vs compression ratio is still pretty good. We’ll break these down into the individual components for a little analysis.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11336 MB/s 11513 MB/s 211948032 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1204 MB/s 11317 MB/s 211644466 99.86 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 635 MB/s 9196 MB/s 204503525 96.49 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 299 MB/s 1298 MB/s 113321280 53.47 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 279 MB/s 969 MB/s 102813688 48.51 brieflz 1.1.0 127 MB/s 209 MB/s 81984968 38.68 crush 1.0 level 0 39 MB/s 285 MB/s 73066686 34.47 crush 1.0 level 1 6.22 MB/s 320 MB/s 66499720 31.38 crush 1.0 level 2 0.83 MB/s 327 MB/s 63751752 30.08 fastlz 0.1 level 1 305 MB/s 728 MB/s 104627960 49.36 fastlz 0.1 level 2 308 MB/s 712 MB/s 100905960 47.61 lz4 r131 597 MB/s 3022 MB/s 100880708 47.60 lz4fast r131 level 3 696 MB/s 3050 MB/s 107066575 50.52 lz4fast r131 level 17 1072 MB/s 3659 MB/s 131732847 62.15 lz4hc r131 level 1 138 MB/s 2743 MB/s 89227407 42.10 lz4hc r131 level 4 76 MB/s 2943 MB/s 80485966 37.97 lz4hc r131 level 9 32 MB/s 3018 MB/s 77919239 36.76 lz4hc r131 level 12 25 MB/s 3009 MB/s 77852883 36.73 lz4hc r131 level 16 16 MB/s 3031 MB/s 77841832 36.73 lzf 3.6 level 0 327 MB/s 774 MB/s 105681992 49.86 lzf 3.6 level 1 328 MB/s 791 MB/s 102041053 48.14 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 63 MB/s 590 MB/s 108553615 51.22 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 41 MB/s 603 MB/s 95930522 45.26 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 25 MB/s 639 MB/s 89490172 42.22 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 9.75 MB/s 695 MB/s 83606917 39.45 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 9.97 MB/s 224 MB/s 64120667 30.25 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.89 MB/s 294 MB/s 54759533 25.84 lzjb 2010 308 MB/s 539 MB/s 122671547 57.88 lzma 9.38 level 0 23 MB/s 73 MB/s 64014180 30.20 lzma 9.38 level 2 20 MB/s 83 MB/s 58868127 27.77 lzma 9.38 level 4 12 MB/s 90 MB/s 57202325 26.99 lzma 9.38 level 5 3.05 MB/s 98 MB/s 49722627 23.46 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 279 MB/s 569 MB/s 113761751 53.67 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 258 MB/s 666 MB/s 112344625 53.01 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 327 MB/s 670 MB/s 105422213 49.74 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 346 MB/s 578 MB/s 100128419 47.24 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 149 MB/s 611 MB/s 90816056 42.85 lzsse4 0.1 269 MB/s 3192 MB/s 95918518 45.26 lzsse8 0.1 273 MB/s 3417 MB/s 94938891 44.79 lzsse2 0.1 0.08 MB/s 3604 MB/s 75668535 35.70 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 471 MB/s 615 MB/s 94723809 44.69 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 227 MB/s 558 MB/s 84563229 39.90 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 55 MB/s 921 MB/s 81821485 38.60 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 84 MB/s 488 MB/s 93943755 44.32 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 54 MB/s 494 MB/s 87396316 41.23 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 34 MB/s 492 MB/s 85165013 40.18 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 24 MB/s 488 MB/s 84061090 39.66 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 140 MB/s 2199 MB/s 105751224 49.89 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 109 MB/s 2433 MB/s 100018782 47.19 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 79 MB/s 2515 MB/s 98672575 46.56 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 76 MB/s 352 MB/s 77260018 36.45 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 26 MB/s 376 MB/s 68228464 32.19 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 10 MB/s 379 MB/s 67643845 31.92 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 348 MB/s 603 MB/s 73803509 34.82 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 269 MB/s 523 MB/s 70269474 33.15 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 112 MB/s 468 MB/s 65419600 30.87 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 34 MB/s 507 MB/s 60463173 28.53 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 14 MB/s 513 MB/s 58851341 27.77 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 6.10 MB/s 505 MB/s 56904225 26.85 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 4.04 MB/s 449 MB/s 56182980 26.51 shrinker 0.1 11329 MB/s 11290 MB/s 211948032 100.00 wflz 2015-09-16 259 MB/s 1116 MB/s 109605178 51.71 lzmat 1.01 34 MB/s 484 MB/s 76486014 36.09

The Dickens file in the corpus is the collective work of Charles Dickens. This kind of fairly compressible text works well with LZSSE2, where relatively long matches mean a lot of copied bytes per step, for relatively good performance. Also, LZSSE2 works well in terms of the probability for control words too, because there are relatively short literal runs per number of matches.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 13905 MB/s 13681 MB/s 10192446 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1141 MB/s 13517 MB/s 10192446 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 594 MB/s 13886 MB/s 10192446 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 209 MB/s 1137 MB/s 7582534 74.39 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 209 MB/s 740 MB/s 6097250 59.82 brieflz 1.1.0 95 MB/s 140 MB/s 4647459 45.60 crush 1.0 level 0 51 MB/s 233 MB/s 4144644 40.66 crush 1.0 level 1 2.44 MB/s 280 MB/s 3467976 34.02 crush 1.0 level 2 0.33 MB/s 290 MB/s 3350089 32.87 fastlz 0.1 level 1 257 MB/s 507 MB/s 6057734 59.43 fastlz 0.1 level 2 238 MB/s 498 MB/s 5995417 58.82 lz4 r131 394 MB/s 2574 MB/s 6428742 63.07 lz4fast r131 level 3 471 MB/s 2484 MB/s 7082423 69.49 lz4fast r131 level 17 1074 MB/s 3581 MB/s 9215415 90.41 lz4hc r131 level 1 115 MB/s 2282 MB/s 5525869 54.22 lz4hc r131 level 4 53 MB/s 2539 MB/s 4684564 45.96 lz4hc r131 level 9 21 MB/s 2605 MB/s 4434445 43.51 lz4hc r131 level 12 20 MB/s 2579 MB/s 4431257 43.48 lz4hc r131 level 16 20 MB/s 2633 MB/s 4431257 43.48 lzf 3.6 level 0 243 MB/s 530 MB/s 6329084 62.10 lzf 3.6 level 1 243 MB/s 577 MB/s 5850777 57.40 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 57 MB/s 380 MB/s 6937973 68.07 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 29 MB/s 383 MB/s 6238963 61.21 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 13 MB/s 448 MB/s 5663702 55.57 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 4.54 MB/s 557 MB/s 5021592 49.27 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 8.31 MB/s 178 MB/s 4248673 41.68 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.59 MB/s 288 MB/s 3172720 31.13 lzjb 2010 211 MB/s 372 MB/s 7728055 75.82 lzma 9.38 level 0 17 MB/s 61 MB/s 4044850 39.68 lzma 9.38 level 2 14 MB/s 77 MB/s 3613945 35.46 lzma 9.38 level 4 10 MB/s 80 MB/s 3525850 34.59 lzma 9.38 level 5 1.84 MB/s 107 MB/s 2829392 27.76 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 226 MB/s 399 MB/s 6595660 64.71 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 228 MB/s 461 MB/s 6590368 64.66 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 233 MB/s 494 MB/s 6157185 60.41 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 265 MB/s 483 MB/s 5813134 57.03 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 113 MB/s 482 MB/s 5128916 50.32 lzsse4 0.1 213 MB/s 3017 MB/s 5161515 50.64 lzsse8 0.1 215 MB/s 2961 MB/s 5174322 50.77 lzsse2 0.1 2.90 MB/s 3941 MB/s 3872251 37.99 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 340 MB/s 533 MB/s 5831353 57.21 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 162 MB/s 480 MB/s 4953617 48.60 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 39 MB/s 720 MB/s 5099490 50.03 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 80 MB/s 321 MB/s 5634109 55.28 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 51 MB/s 341 MB/s 5030032 49.35 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 35 MB/s 348 MB/s 4842921 47.51 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 27 MB/s 353 MB/s 4759454 46.70 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 112 MB/s 1460 MB/s 6013187 59.00 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 89 MB/s 1498 MB/s 5872799 57.62 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 84 MB/s 1505 MB/s 5846776 57.36 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 65 MB/s 310 MB/s 4585618 44.99 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 16 MB/s 323 MB/s 3871634 37.99 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 12 MB/s 325 MB/s 3854735 37.82 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 242 MB/s 473 MB/s 4280491 42.00 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 172 MB/s 356 MB/s 3910652 38.37 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 90 MB/s 322 MB/s 3722585 36.52 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 23 MB/s 374 MB/s 3351613 32.88 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 6.45 MB/s 381 MB/s 3214233 31.54 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 3.45 MB/s 383 MB/s 3054092 29.96 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 3.11 MB/s 382 MB/s 3036816 29.79 shrinker 0.1 316 MB/s 740 MB/s 5903074 57.92 wflz 2015-09-16 189 MB/s 671 MB/s 7275900 71.39 lzmat 1.01 23 MB/s 380 MB/s 4501480 44.16

Mozilla is the tarred binaries of the Mozilla 1.0 distribution. Things here aren’t as rosy as we have shorter matches and lots of literal runs, although there are some long runs of the same character. The LZSSE2 compressor hits the pathological case for it’s binary tree based matcher, slowing to an absolute crawl on compression. We’re still competitive with LZ4 HC for compression ratio vs decompression performance.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11349 MB/s 11374 MB/s 51220480 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1355 MB/s 11321 MB/s 51220480 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 709 MB/s 10787 MB/s 50949746 99.47 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 302 MB/s 1446 MB/s 32729305 63.90 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 282 MB/s 938 MB/s 27353816 53.40 brieflz 1.1.0 127 MB/s 229 MB/s 22261084 43.46 crush 1.0 level 0 34 MB/s 259 MB/s 20573545 40.17 crush 1.0 level 1 9.79 MB/s 274 MB/s 19750089 38.56 crush 1.0 level 2 1.51 MB/s 283 MB/s 18760569 36.63 fastlz 0.1 level 1 294 MB/s 782 MB/s 27610306 53.90 fastlz 0.1 level 2 293 MB/s 754 MB/s 27070715 52.85 lz4 r131 637 MB/s 2929 MB/s 26435667 51.61 lz4fast r131 level 3 745 MB/s 3019 MB/s 27973598 54.61 lz4fast r131 level 17 1116 MB/s 3749 MB/s 34039558 66.46 lz4hc r131 level 1 132 MB/s 2765 MB/s 23886540 46.63 lz4hc r131 level 4 85 MB/s 2982 MB/s 22513368 43.95 lz4hc r131 level 9 44 MB/s 3067 MB/s 22092109 43.13 lz4hc r131 level 12 28 MB/s 3004 MB/s 22071142 43.09 lz4hc r131 level 16 11 MB/s 3017 MB/s 22062995 43.07 lzf 3.6 level 0 339 MB/s 806 MB/s 26982485 52.68 lzf 3.6 level 1 324 MB/s 800 MB/s 26687518 52.10 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 51 MB/s 625 MB/s 26280004 51.31 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 40 MB/s 631 MB/s 24613811 48.05 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 29 MB/s 634 MB/s 23802178 46.47 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 15 MB/s 640 MB/s 22980170 44.87 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 9.38 MB/s 211 MB/s 16337459 31.90 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.66 MB/s 246 MB/s 14749315 28.80 lzjb 2010 335 MB/s 583 MB/s 28867642 56.36 lzma 9.38 level 0 22 MB/s 65 MB/s 16425272 32.07 lzma 9.38 level 2 19 MB/s 72 MB/s 15390824 30.05 lzma 9.38 level 4 12 MB/s 77 MB/s 14878636 29.05 lzma 9.38 level 5 3.12 MB/s 82 MB/s 13512367 26.38 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 295 MB/s 622 MB/s 27333863 53.37 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 260 MB/s 742 MB/s 27187667 53.08 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 346 MB/s 697 MB/s 26210993 51.17 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 349 MB/s 557 MB/s 25578346 49.94 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 154 MB/s 570 MB/s 24126074 47.10 lzsse4 0.1 258 MB/s 2635 MB/s 27406939 53.51 lzsse8 0.1 262 MB/s 2818 MB/s 26993974 52.70 lzsse2 0.1 0.03 MB/s 3030 MB/s 22452327 43.83 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 478 MB/s 579 MB/s 24756819 48.33 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 223 MB/s 503 MB/s 23337850 45.56 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 56 MB/s 831 MB/s 22240936 43.42 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 69 MB/s 501 MB/s 25454532 49.70 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 46 MB/s 491 MB/s 24449446 47.73 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 30 MB/s 490 MB/s 24076623 47.01 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 20 MB/s 483 MB/s 23881699 46.63 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 142 MB/s 2330 MB/s 26958469 52.63 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 109 MB/s 2662 MB/s 25715135 50.20 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 77 MB/s 2707 MB/s 25271700 49.34 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 66 MB/s 317 MB/s 20577226 40.17 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 23 MB/s 336 MB/s 19089124 37.27 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 6.36 MB/s 339 MB/s 19044396 37.18 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 345 MB/s 556 MB/s 20173050 39.38 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 280 MB/s 526 MB/s 19244936 37.57 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 110 MB/s 487 MB/s 18239976 35.61 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 37 MB/s 518 MB/s 17155767 33.49 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 20 MB/s 516 MB/s 16862530 32.92 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 8.46 MB/s 503 MB/s 16552487 32.32 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 5.83 MB/s 435 MB/s 16397038 32.01 shrinker 0.1 397 MB/s 1162 MB/s 23797180 46.46 wflz 2015-09-16 249 MB/s 1270 MB/s 28757022 56.14 lzmat 1.01 29 MB/s 458 MB/s 20575801 40.17

Silesia’s mr is a magnetic resonance image. Again, we have pathological compression performance for LZSEE2. LZSSE8 does well here because of the longer literal runs, but LZSEE2’s stronger matching puts it ahead.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 14023 MB/s 13695 MB/s 9970564 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1531 MB/s 13473 MB/s 9970564 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 818 MB/s 13455 MB/s 9970564 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 343 MB/s 1081 MB/s 5842843 58.60 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 340 MB/s 858 MB/s 5122078 51.37 brieflz 1.1.0 129 MB/s 177 MB/s 4393337 44.06 crush 1.0 level 0 51 MB/s 280 MB/s 4151312 41.64 crush 1.0 level 1 4.74 MB/s 312 MB/s 3691296 37.02 crush 1.0 level 2 0.42 MB/s 301 MB/s 3532781 35.43 fastlz 0.1 level 1 456 MB/s 1032 MB/s 5102964 51.18 fastlz 0.1 level 2 375 MB/s 1028 MB/s 5073384 50.88 lz4 r131 608 MB/s 3157 MB/s 5440937 54.57 lz4fast r131 level 3 751 MB/s 3243 MB/s 5590948 56.07 lz4fast r131 level 17 1100 MB/s 3899 MB/s 6040318 60.58 lz4hc r131 level 1 142 MB/s 2558 MB/s 5077585 50.93 lz4hc r131 level 4 68 MB/s 2826 MB/s 4529845 45.43 lz4hc r131 level 9 19 MB/s 2965 MB/s 4247505 42.60 lz4hc r131 level 12 14 MB/s 2998 MB/s 4244773 42.57 lz4hc r131 level 16 4.96 MB/s 2970 MB/s 4244224 42.57 lzf 3.6 level 0 424 MB/s 801 MB/s 5388536 54.04 lzf 3.6 level 1 450 MB/s 858 MB/s 4999202 50.14 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 70 MB/s 552 MB/s 5494713 55.11 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 37 MB/s 545 MB/s 5262984 52.79 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 16 MB/s 569 MB/s 5056631 50.72 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 6.39 MB/s 614 MB/s 4807004 48.21 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 8.64 MB/s 176 MB/s 3155756 31.65 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 3.34 MB/s 232 MB/s 2985074 29.94 lzjb 2010 336 MB/s 633 MB/s 5854361 58.72 lzma 9.38 level 0 21 MB/s 69 MB/s 3157626 31.67 lzma 9.38 level 2 18 MB/s 76 MB/s 3092086 31.01 lzma 9.38 level 4 12 MB/s 81 MB/s 3040649 30.50 lzma 9.38 level 5 2.92 MB/s 84 MB/s 2751595 27.60 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 406 MB/s 770 MB/s 5492440 55.09 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 383 MB/s 970 MB/s 5453392 54.69 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 470 MB/s 960 MB/s 5187387 52.03 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 484 MB/s 796 MB/s 5013906 50.29 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 172 MB/s 776 MB/s 4629636 46.43 lzsse4 0.1 254 MB/s 2589 MB/s 7034206 70.55 lzsse8 0.1 281 MB/s 3031 MB/s 6856430 68.77 lzsse2 0.1 0.03 MB/s 3315 MB/s 4006788 40.19 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 636 MB/s 526 MB/s 4778194 47.92 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 277 MB/s 486 MB/s 4317635 43.30 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 56 MB/s 956 MB/s 4559691 45.73 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 79 MB/s 484 MB/s 5269368 52.85 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 56 MB/s 473 MB/s 4928226 49.43 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 37 MB/s 467 MB/s 4792581 48.07 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 28 MB/s 468 MB/s 4730734 47.45 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 142 MB/s 1692 MB/s 6113745 61.32 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 108 MB/s 2492 MB/s 5258774 52.74 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 68 MB/s 2903 MB/s 5016379 50.31 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 81 MB/s 364 MB/s 3828366 38.40 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 16 MB/s 342 MB/s 3675941 36.87 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 6.01 MB/s 354 MB/s 3660794 36.72 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 313 MB/s 643 MB/s 3832967 38.44 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 229 MB/s 493 MB/s 3611124 36.22 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 98 MB/s 373 MB/s 3455926 34.66 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 27 MB/s 382 MB/s 3360748 33.71 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 9.32 MB/s 388 MB/s 3298241 33.08 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 5.19 MB/s 382 MB/s 3238037 32.48 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 4.62 MB/s 380 MB/s 3232535 32.42 shrinker 0.1 440 MB/s 938 MB/s 5348926 53.65 wflz 2015-09-16 317 MB/s 1580 MB/s 6128033 61.46 lzmat 1.01 40 MB/s 468 MB/s 4211586 42.24

Silesia’s nci is a database of chemical structures and is highly compressible. LZSSE loves this file, especially LZSSE2, where we get over 60% of memcpy speed for relatively competitive compression ratios (yes, that is over 7GB/s). The main thing here is that we get a lot of bytes copied per step, which increases the relative efficiency of the decompression.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11459 MB/s 11455 MB/s 33553445 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1122 MB/s 11374 MB/s 33553445 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 609 MB/s 5875 MB/s 28744881 85.67 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 588 MB/s 1622 MB/s 6809799 20.30 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 589 MB/s 1622 MB/s 6809799 20.30 brieflz 1.1.0 246 MB/s 392 MB/s 4559358 13.59 crush 1.0 level 0 132 MB/s 643 MB/s 3668407 10.93 crush 1.0 level 1 19 MB/s 848 MB/s 2806144 8.36 crush 1.0 level 2 1.97 MB/s 912 MB/s 2624033 7.82 fastlz 0.1 level 1 701 MB/s 1134 MB/s 6947358 20.71 fastlz 0.1 level 2 636 MB/s 1117 MB/s 6583289 19.62 lz4 r131 1103 MB/s 4133 MB/s 5533040 16.49 lz4fast r131 level 3 1176 MB/s 4068 MB/s 5684097 16.94 lz4fast r131 level 17 1295 MB/s 3883 MB/s 7172738 21.38 lz4hc r131 level 1 270 MB/s 3783 MB/s 5059842 15.08 lz4hc r131 level 4 132 MB/s 4359 MB/s 4078371 12.15 lz4hc r131 level 9 28 MB/s 4758 MB/s 3679323 10.97 lz4hc r131 level 12 20 MB/s 4853 MB/s 3662990 10.92 lz4hc r131 level 16 18 MB/s 4836 MB/s 3661231 10.91 lzf 3.6 level 0 679 MB/s 1458 MB/s 7263009 21.65 lzf 3.6 level 1 691 MB/s 1559 MB/s 6936021 20.67 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 114 MB/s 962 MB/s 8218641 24.49 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 72 MB/s 1082 MB/s 5991131 17.86 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 50 MB/s 1186 MB/s 5304820 15.81 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 19 MB/s 1330 MB/s 4613756 13.75 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 15 MB/s 566 MB/s 2813533 8.39 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 4.35 MB/s 933 MB/s 2135880 6.37 lzjb 2010 487 MB/s 776 MB/s 8714416 25.97 lzma 9.38 level 0 56 MB/s 242 MB/s 2777997 8.28 lzma 9.38 level 2 58 MB/s 301 MB/s 2487371 7.41 lzma 9.38 level 4 48 MB/s 331 MB/s 2398761 7.15 lzma 9.38 level 5 6.52 MB/s 362 MB/s 1978318 5.90 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 511 MB/s 796 MB/s 10423020 31.06 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 524 MB/s 935 MB/s 9698071 28.90 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 547 MB/s 976 MB/s 8630804 25.72 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 593 MB/s 905 MB/s 8412942 25.07 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 190 MB/s 1081 MB/s 6556582 19.54 lzsse4 0.1 497 MB/s 5503 MB/s 5711408 17.02 lzsse8 0.1 509 MB/s 5254 MB/s 5796797 17.28 lzsse2 0.1 1.85 MB/s 7195 MB/s 3703275 11.04 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 847 MB/s 1343 MB/s 6160636 18.36 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 466 MB/s 1468 MB/s 4867322 14.51 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 96 MB/s 1945 MB/s 4482913 13.36 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 288 MB/s 902 MB/s 5050596 15.05 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 168 MB/s 1006 MB/s 4192253 12.49 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 113 MB/s 1017 MB/s 3910381 11.65 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 89 MB/s 1013 MB/s 3767494 11.23 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 249 MB/s 2719 MB/s 8224487 24.51 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 169 MB/s 3380 MB/s 6569703 19.58 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 65 MB/s 3505 MB/s 6280019 18.72 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 183 MB/s 674 MB/s 4624597 13.78 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 70 MB/s 809 MB/s 3200188 9.54 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 13 MB/s 840 MB/s 2988001 8.91 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 732 MB/s 1047 MB/s 2876326 8.57 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 688 MB/s 1018 MB/s 2937436 8.75 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 278 MB/s 1015 MB/s 2810373 8.38 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 110 MB/s 1317 MB/s 2360355 7.03 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 46 MB/s 1459 MB/s 2197208 6.55 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 7.67 MB/s 1561 MB/s 1938899 5.78 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 3.85 MB/s 1418 MB/s 1802903 5.37 shrinker 0.1 885 MB/s 1892 MB/s 5350052 15.94 wflz 2015-09-16 778 MB/s 2114 MB/s 6316882 18.83 lzmat 1.01 45 MB/s 904 MB/s 4046914 12.06

Ooffice is a dll from open office. Again with this kind of binary LZSSE does not do as well, although LZSSE8 does a lot better here. Performance is much closer to LZ4.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 17628 MB/s 17832 MB/s 6152192 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1358 MB/s 17281 MB/s 6152192 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 699 MB/s 17330 MB/s 6152192 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 235 MB/s 5961 MB/s 5790799 94.13 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 196 MB/s 722 MB/s 4297469 69.85 brieflz 1.1.0 94 MB/s 172 MB/s 3543046 57.59 crush 1.0 level 0 24 MB/s 190 MB/s 3188991 51.84 crush 1.0 level 1 5.94 MB/s 195 MB/s 3077918 50.03 crush 1.0 level 2 1.35 MB/s 202 MB/s 2958514 48.09 fastlz 0.1 level 1 197 MB/s 538 MB/s 4301654 69.92 fastlz 0.1 level 2 201 MB/s 515 MB/s 4259180 69.23 lz4 r131 514 MB/s 2649 MB/s 4338918 70.53 lz4fast r131 level 3 746 MB/s 3142 MB/s 4733421 76.94 lz4fast r131 level 17 1661 MB/s 6115 MB/s 5528929 89.87 lz4hc r131 level 1 94 MB/s 2439 MB/s 3823662 62.15 lz4hc r131 level 4 57 MB/s 2544 MB/s 3589528 58.35 lz4hc r131 level 9 38 MB/s 2562 MB/s 3544431 57.61 lz4hc r131 level 12 33 MB/s 2586 MB/s 3543539 57.60 lz4hc r131 level 16 28 MB/s 2581 MB/s 3543401 57.60 lzf 3.6 level 0 234 MB/s 565 MB/s 4297787 69.86 lzf 3.6 level 1 223 MB/s 554 MB/s 4213660 68.49 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 37 MB/s 486 MB/s 4139615 67.29 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 27 MB/s 471 MB/s 3931101 63.90 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 18 MB/s 458 MB/s 3812065 61.96 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 8.66 MB/s 444 MB/s 3674340 59.72 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 7.42 MB/s 132 MB/s 2822729 45.88 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.85 MB/s 162 MB/s 2578108 41.91 lzjb 2010 264 MB/s 472 MB/s 4600800 74.78 lzma 9.38 level 0 16 MB/s 46 MB/s 2841578 46.19 lzma 9.38 level 2 13 MB/s 51 MB/s 2703265 43.94 lzma 9.38 level 4 8.58 MB/s 54 MB/s 2637526 42.87 lzma 9.38 level 5 3.23 MB/s 57 MB/s 2428736 39.48 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 200 MB/s 472 MB/s 4269971 69.41 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 180 MB/s 552 MB/s 4256502 69.19 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 257 MB/s 521 MB/s 4138957 67.28 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 251 MB/s 421 MB/s 4036479 65.61 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 121 MB/s 411 MB/s 3847820 62.54 lzsse4 0.1 164 MB/s 2433 MB/s 3972687 64.57 lzsse8 0.1 162 MB/s 2710 MB/s 3922013 63.75 lzsse2 0.1 0.03 MB/s 2478 MB/s 3492808 56.77 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 339 MB/s 433 MB/s 4013859 65.24 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 167 MB/s 381 MB/s 3722542 60.51 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 45 MB/s 579 MB/s 3548660 57.68 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 48 MB/s 435 MB/s 4125570 67.06 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 33 MB/s 388 MB/s 3996893 64.97 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 24 MB/s 377 MB/s 3953444 64.26 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 17 MB/s 373 MB/s 3929331 63.87 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 109 MB/s 2458 MB/s 4175016 67.86 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 93 MB/s 2602 MB/s 4105418 66.73 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 85 MB/s 2611 MB/s 4090885 66.49 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 48 MB/s 224 MB/s 3290532 53.49 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 18 MB/s 244 MB/s 3097294 50.34 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 10 MB/s 242 MB/s 3092926 50.27 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 268 MB/s 535 MB/s 3585831 58.29 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 202 MB/s 442 MB/s 3329621 54.12 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 73 MB/s 361 MB/s 3049253 49.56 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 21 MB/s 365 MB/s 2891406 47.00 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 11 MB/s 365 MB/s 2856608 46.43 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 8.28 MB/s 372 MB/s 2839843 46.16 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 7.80 MB/s 368 MB/s 2838729 46.14 shrinker 0.1 299 MB/s 902 MB/s 3868354 62.88 wflz 2015-09-16 152 MB/s 1051 MB/s 4507764 73.27 lzmat 1.01 32 MB/s 300 MB/s 3389975 55.10

The next cab off the rank is osdb, which is a MySQL database. Here we do better than we did on the binaries, with LZSSE8 doing particularly well.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 13816 MB/s 13797 MB/s 10085684 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1653 MB/s 13740 MB/s 10085684 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 831 MB/s 13556 MB/s 10085684 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 267 MB/s 1273 MB/s 5736204 56.87 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 267 MB/s 1276 MB/s 5736204 56.87 brieflz 1.1.0 131 MB/s 241 MB/s 4261872 42.26 crush 1.0 level 0 26 MB/s 302 MB/s 3944111 39.11 crush 1.0 level 1 4.72 MB/s 329 MB/s 3649422 36.18 crush 1.0 level 2 1.25 MB/s 344 MB/s 3545628 35.16 fastlz 0.1 level 1 205 MB/s 812 MB/s 6716718 66.60 fastlz 0.1 level 2 279 MB/s 775 MB/s 5391583 53.46 lz4 r131 544 MB/s 2800 MB/s 5256666 52.12 lz4fast r131 level 3 685 MB/s 2796 MB/s 5864711 58.15 lz4fast r131 level 17 1217 MB/s 4188 MB/s 8089261 80.21 lz4hc r131 level 1 145 MB/s 3158 MB/s 4280365 42.44 lz4hc r131 level 4 80 MB/s 3150 MB/s 4017760 39.84 lz4hc r131 level 9 53 MB/s 3144 MB/s 3977505 39.44 lz4hc r131 level 12 53 MB/s 3145 MB/s 3977501 39.44 lz4hc r131 level 16 53 MB/s 3202 MB/s 3977501 39.44 lzf 3.6 level 0 256 MB/s 879 MB/s 6602260 65.46 lzf 3.6 level 1 282 MB/s 891 MB/s 6418449 63.64 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 44 MB/s 725 MB/s 8130169 80.61 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 37 MB/s 730 MB/s 5330956 52.86 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 27 MB/s 869 MB/s 4413239 43.76 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 12 MB/s 891 MB/s 4206158 41.70 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 9.17 MB/s 231 MB/s 3530290 35.00 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.57 MB/s 283 MB/s 3152108 31.25 lzjb 2010 307 MB/s 620 MB/s 9545173 94.64 lzma 9.38 level 0 20 MB/s 57 MB/s 3988823 39.55 lzma 9.38 level 2 17 MB/s 73 MB/s 3307207 32.79 lzma 9.38 level 4 11 MB/s 74 MB/s 3370412 33.42 lzma 9.38 level 5 2.98 MB/s 83 MB/s 2870328 28.46 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 182 MB/s 560 MB/s 8129348 80.60 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 151 MB/s 700 MB/s 8070717 80.02 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 306 MB/s 652 MB/s 7300607 72.39 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 325 MB/s 507 MB/s 5704498 56.56 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 151 MB/s 552 MB/s 5333359 52.88 lzsse4 0.1 260 MB/s 4066 MB/s 4262592 42.26 lzsse8 0.1 261 MB/s 4512 MB/s 4175474 41.40 lzsse2 0.1 2.89 MB/s 3538 MB/s 3957567 39.24 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 435 MB/s 541 MB/s 5496443 54.50 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 225 MB/s 530 MB/s 4532176 44.94 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 53 MB/s 1168 MB/s 4259234 42.23 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 77 MB/s 676 MB/s 4570193 45.31 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 49 MB/s 690 MB/s 4465943 44.28 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 31 MB/s 718 MB/s 4384305 43.47 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 21 MB/s 728 MB/s 4336873 43.00 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 98 MB/s 2640 MB/s 7445962 73.83 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 93 MB/s 2685 MB/s 7372889 73.10 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 93 MB/s 2688 MB/s 7370336 73.08 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 69 MB/s 344 MB/s 4076391 40.42 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 31 MB/s 368 MB/s 3695170 36.64 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 23 MB/s 376 MB/s 3673177 36.42 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 333 MB/s 622 MB/s 3790691 37.58 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 271 MB/s 574 MB/s 3517954 34.88 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 91 MB/s 529 MB/s 3503732 34.74 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 33 MB/s 544 MB/s 3380393 33.52 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 14 MB/s 550 MB/s 3286962 32.59 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 5.74 MB/s 604 MB/s 3133720 31.07 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 5.30 MB/s 595 MB/s 3128197 31.02 shrinker 0.1 545 MB/s 1721 MB/s 4641152 46.02 wflz 2015-09-16 321 MB/s 1569 MB/s 4768614 47.28 lzmat 1.01 64 MB/s 522 MB/s 4238262 42.02

Reymont is a Polish literature work in pdf, this time LZSSE2 does well again.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 16651 MB/s 17036 MB/s 6627202 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1112 MB/s 16609 MB/s 6627202 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 575 MB/s 16820 MB/s 6627202 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 240 MB/s 793 MB/s 3259380 49.18 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 240 MB/s 786 MB/s 3243988 48.95 brieflz 1.1.0 119 MB/s 168 MB/s 2493374 37.62 crush 1.0 level 0 63 MB/s 248 MB/s 2190579 33.05 crush 1.0 level 1 4.12 MB/s 321 MB/s 1758150 26.53 crush 1.0 level 2 0.25 MB/s 355 MB/s 1644697 24.82 fastlz 0.1 level 1 276 MB/s 556 MB/s 3335571 50.33 fastlz 0.1 level 2 271 MB/s 546 MB/s 3186529 48.08 lz4 r131 397 MB/s 2531 MB/s 3181387 48.00 lz4fast r131 level 3 417 MB/s 2514 MB/s 3322020 50.13 lz4fast r131 level 17 568 MB/s 2509 MB/s 4403444 66.44 lz4hc r131 level 1 131 MB/s 2422 MB/s 2944201 44.43 lz4hc r131 level 4 62 MB/s 2738 MB/s 2361684 35.64 lz4hc r131 level 9 15 MB/s 2826 MB/s 2114022 31.90 lz4hc r131 level 12 11 MB/s 2835 MB/s 2106571 31.79 lz4hc r131 level 16 12 MB/s 2836 MB/s 2106571 31.79 lzf 3.6 level 0 277 MB/s 579 MB/s 3365987 50.79 lzf 3.6 level 1 273 MB/s 595 MB/s 3253836 49.10 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 55 MB/s 416 MB/s 3326973 50.20 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 33 MB/s 486 MB/s 2948111 44.49 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 19 MB/s 556 MB/s 2715211 40.97 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 6.11 MB/s 679 MB/s 2427424 36.63 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 9.12 MB/s 203 MB/s 2111331 31.86 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.80 MB/s 335 MB/s 1544771 23.31 lzjb 2010 219 MB/s 368 MB/s 3889268 58.69 lzma 9.38 level 0 20 MB/s 78 MB/s 1921954 29.00 lzma 9.38 level 2 17 MB/s 90 MB/s 1807903 27.28 lzma 9.38 level 4 14 MB/s 94 MB/s 1777103 26.82 lzma 9.38 level 5 2.14 MB/s 136 MB/s 1340625 20.23 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 268 MB/s 464 MB/s 3524660 53.18 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 269 MB/s 522 MB/s 3512256 53.00 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 274 MB/s 562 MB/s 3224618 48.66 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 310 MB/s 561 MB/s 3043004 45.92 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 136 MB/s 629 MB/s 2502161 37.76 lzsse4 0.1 251 MB/s 3020 MB/s 2925190 44.14 lzsse8 0.1 251 MB/s 2946 MB/s 2952727 44.55 lzsse2 0.1 2.59 MB/s 4960 MB/s 1852623 27.95 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 408 MB/s 613 MB/s 3003825 45.33 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 200 MB/s 573 MB/s 2560936 38.64 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 46 MB/s 774 MB/s 2448354 36.94 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 101 MB/s 372 MB/s 3017083 45.53 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 63 MB/s 405 MB/s 2679592 40.43 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 43 MB/s 420 MB/s 2569444 38.77 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 35 MB/s 428 MB/s 2520600 38.03 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 146 MB/s 1780 MB/s 3011002 45.43 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 89 MB/s 1896 MB/s 2781083 41.96 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 72 MB/s 1924 MB/s 2738695 41.33 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 76 MB/s 348 MB/s 2376430 35.86 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 17 MB/s 381 MB/s 1860871 28.08 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 5.81 MB/s 380 MB/s 1823196 27.51 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 260 MB/s 454 MB/s 2169769 32.74 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 221 MB/s 387 MB/s 2100979 31.70 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 107 MB/s 388 MB/s 1974996 29.80 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 33 MB/s 477 MB/s 1724763 26.03 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 10 MB/s 509 MB/s 1620588 24.45 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 4.55 MB/s 540 MB/s 1480040 22.33 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 3.43 MB/s 549 MB/s 1451022 21.89 shrinker 0.1 347 MB/s 742 MB/s 3157154 47.64 wflz 2015-09-16 252 MB/s 682 MB/s 4035470 60.89 lzmat 1.01 17 MB/s 469 MB/s 2124786 32.06

The samba source code, similar performance characteristics to other text:

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11729 MB/s 11492 MB/s 21606400 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1144 MB/s 11359 MB/s 21503746 99.52 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 603 MB/s 9883 MB/s 21074313 97.54 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 363 MB/s 1321 MB/s 8066597 37.33 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 353 MB/s 1315 MB/s 7953097 36.81 brieflz 1.1.0 161 MB/s 272 MB/s 6175378 28.58 crush 1.0 level 0 64 MB/s 366 MB/s 5531441 25.60 crush 1.0 level 1 9.78 MB/s 411 MB/s 5046297 23.36 crush 1.0 level 2 1.44 MB/s 429 MB/s 4912137 22.73 fastlz 0.1 level 1 369 MB/s 803 MB/s 8327938 38.54 fastlz 0.1 level 2 390 MB/s 828 MB/s 7651048 35.41 lz4 r131 679 MB/s 3275 MB/s 7716839 35.72 lz4fast r131 level 3 724 MB/s 3200 MB/s 8250343 38.18 lz4fast r131 level 17 1036 MB/s 3584 MB/s 11109978 51.42 lz4hc r131 level 1 177 MB/s 3213 MB/s 6858151 31.74 lz4hc r131 level 4 102 MB/s 3390 MB/s 6286421 29.10 lz4hc r131 level 9 46 MB/s 3448 MB/s 6142054 28.43 lz4hc r131 level 12 36 MB/s 3451 MB/s 6139201 28.41 lz4hc r131 level 16 30 MB/s 3486 MB/s 6138755 28.41 lzf 3.6 level 0 375 MB/s 872 MB/s 8616496 39.88 lzf 3.6 level 1 390 MB/s 914 MB/s 8208471 37.99 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 69 MB/s 664 MB/s 9073050 41.99 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 49 MB/s 711 MB/s 7759679 35.91 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 32 MB/s 776 MB/s 6981326 32.31 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 12 MB/s 846 MB/s 6485251 30.02 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 11 MB/s 332 MB/s 5194325 24.04 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 4.03 MB/s 446 MB/s 4282964 19.82 lzjb 2010 350 MB/s 591 MB/s 10566148 48.90 lzma 9.38 level 0 28 MB/s 89 MB/s 5338935 24.71 lzma 9.38 level 2 26 MB/s 108 MB/s 4635279 21.45 lzma 9.38 level 4 19 MB/s 117 MB/s 4361856 20.19 lzma 9.38 level 5 4.31 MB/s 129 MB/s 3859221 17.86 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 337 MB/s 645 MB/s 9682113 44.81 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 304 MB/s 747 MB/s 9550240 44.20 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 374 MB/s 743 MB/s 8708966 40.31 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 403 MB/s 658 MB/s 8241669 38.14 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 168 MB/s 710 MB/s 7486315 34.65 lzsse4 0.1 297 MB/s 4045 MB/s 7601765 35.18 lzsse8 0.1 297 MB/s 4185 MB/s 7582300 35.09 lzsse2 0.1 0.21 MB/s 4400 MB/s 6088709 28.18 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 555 MB/s 792 MB/s 7309452 33.83 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 270 MB/s 735 MB/s 6548190 30.31 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 64 MB/s 1176 MB/s 6369074 29.48 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 116 MB/s 560 MB/s 7098899 32.86 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 71 MB/s 598 MB/s 6590006 30.50 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 48 MB/s 610 MB/s 6446898 29.84 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 37 MB/s 618 MB/s 6361237 29.44 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 162 MB/s 2318 MB/s 8788099 40.67 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 120 MB/s 2635 MB/s 8169046 37.81 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 90 MB/s 2682 MB/s 8021698 37.13 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 96 MB/s 438 MB/s 6329455 29.29 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 37 MB/s 472 MB/s 5451405 25.23 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 19 MB/s 475 MB/s 5402710 25.01 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 422 MB/s 720 MB/s 5573442 25.80 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 337 MB/s 656 MB/s 5418700 25.08 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 149 MB/s 652 MB/s 4953932 22.93 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 56 MB/s 755 MB/s 4503155 20.84 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 24 MB/s 778 MB/s 4360991 20.18 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 8.40 MB/s 809 MB/s 4204351 19.46 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 4.21 MB/s 794 MB/s 4171774 19.31 shrinker 0.1 490 MB/s 1294 MB/s 7317434 33.87 wflz 2015-09-16 344 MB/s 1167 MB/s 8856272 40.99 lzmat 1.01 47 MB/s 646 MB/s 5783582 26.77

The SAO star catalogue is less compressible and suits LZSSE8 very well, but LZSSE2 fairs quite poorly, even with the optimal parse advantage.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 16079 MB/s 16115 MB/s 7251944 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1660 MB/s 16044 MB/s 7251944 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 861 MB/s 15629 MB/s 7251944 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 289 MB/s 15629 MB/s 7251944 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 192 MB/s 935 MB/s 6541044 90.20 brieflz 1.1.0 92 MB/s 194 MB/s 6139160 84.66 crush 1.0 level 0 16 MB/s 183 MB/s 5758539 79.41 crush 1.0 level 1 3.86 MB/s 192 MB/s 5573768 76.86 crush 1.0 level 2 0.68 MB/s 201 MB/s 5472031 75.46 fastlz 0.1 level 1 159 MB/s 715 MB/s 6525733 89.99 fastlz 0.1 level 2 220 MB/s 699 MB/s 6526165 89.99 lz4 r131 504 MB/s 3393 MB/s 6790273 93.63 lz4fast r131 level 3 944 MB/s 4339 MB/s 6930690 95.57 lz4fast r131 level 17 2160 MB/s 8364 MB/s 7183536 99.06 lz4hc r131 level 1 81 MB/s 2131 MB/s 6240508 86.05 lz4hc r131 level 4 45 MB/s 2291 MB/s 5859003 80.79 lz4hc r131 level 9 29 MB/s 2404 MB/s 5735467 79.09 lz4hc r131 level 12 29 MB/s 2403 MB/s 5735136 79.08 lz4hc r131 level 16 29 MB/s 2402 MB/s 5735136 79.08 lzf 3.6 level 0 229 MB/s 708 MB/s 6325572 87.23 lzf 3.6 level 1 219 MB/s 697 MB/s 6280222 86.60 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 26 MB/s 517 MB/s 6357698 87.67 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 19 MB/s 493 MB/s 6217135 85.73 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 13 MB/s 516 MB/s 6086665 83.93 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 6.36 MB/s 555 MB/s 5930187 81.77 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 6.91 MB/s 132 MB/s 4990889 68.82 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.16 MB/s 153 MB/s 4734194 65.28 lzjb 2010 282 MB/s 556 MB/s 7005137 96.60 lzma 9.38 level 0 12 MB/s 32 MB/s 4923529 67.89 lzma 9.38 level 2 9.73 MB/s 33 MB/s 4892916 67.47 lzma 9.38 level 4 5.77 MB/s 33 MB/s 4894122 67.49 lzma 9.38 level 5 3.04 MB/s 36 MB/s 4418197 60.92 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 164 MB/s 507 MB/s 6582297 90.77 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 138 MB/s 622 MB/s 6582297 90.77 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 268 MB/s 582 MB/s 6540282 90.19 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 269 MB/s 403 MB/s 6477885 89.33 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 110 MB/s 426 MB/s 6178268 85.19 lzsse4 0.1 168 MB/s 2432 MB/s 6305407 86.95 lzsse8 0.1 166 MB/s 3274 MB/s 6045723 83.37 lzsse2 0.1 2.59 MB/s 1863 MB/s 6066923 83.66 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 359 MB/s 353 MB/s 6498301 89.61 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 142 MB/s 271 MB/s 6121309 84.41 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 37 MB/s 751 MB/s 6073127 83.74 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 38 MB/s 611 MB/s 6299030 86.86 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 24 MB/s 568 MB/s 6084431 83.90 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 17 MB/s 548 MB/s 6042253 83.32 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 12 MB/s 543 MB/s 6021554 83.03 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 94 MB/s 2367 MB/s 6153132 84.85 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 86 MB/s 2383 MB/s 6096705 84.07 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 85 MB/s 2389 MB/s 6091380 84.00 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 37 MB/s 246 MB/s 5567774 76.78 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 16 MB/s 271 MB/s 5331799 73.52 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 13 MB/s 274 MB/s 5325920 73.44 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 235 MB/s 482 MB/s 6255977 86.27 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 169 MB/s 418 MB/s 5818661 80.24 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 53 MB/s 355 MB/s 5403988 74.52 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 14 MB/s 365 MB/s 5228930 72.10 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 7.85 MB/s 357 MB/s 5200485 71.71 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 6.44 MB/s 351 MB/s 5202330 71.74 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 6.40 MB/s 351 MB/s 5201103 71.72 shrinker 0.1 333 MB/s 1409 MB/s 6394653 88.18 wflz 2015-09-16 131 MB/s 1405 MB/s 6677960 92.09 lzmat 1.01 32 MB/s 341 MB/s 5862040 80.83

The 1913 Webster dictionary works well with LZSSE2. There is a definite trend towards LZSSE2 for the more compressible text.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 11704 MB/s 11681 MB/s 41458703 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1087 MB/s 11355 MB/s 41458703 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 567 MB/s 11358 MB/s 41458703 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 242 MB/s 854 MB/s 20100893 48.48 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 242 MB/s 855 MB/s 20100893 48.48 brieflz 1.1.0 112 MB/s 166 MB/s 15088514 36.39 crush 1.0 level 0 55 MB/s 270 MB/s 12752811 30.76 crush 1.0 level 1 4.04 MB/s 322 MB/s 10826131 26.11 crush 1.0 level 2 0.50 MB/s 335 MB/s 10430224 25.16 fastlz 0.1 level 1 287 MB/s 563 MB/s 20113352 48.51 fastlz 0.1 level 2 267 MB/s 554 MB/s 19693994 47.50 lz4 r131 454 MB/s 2566 MB/s 20139988 48.58 lz4fast r131 level 3 507 MB/s 2538 MB/s 21871634 52.76 lz4fast r131 level 17 819 MB/s 2961 MB/s 28765737 69.38 lz4hc r131 level 1 136 MB/s 2370 MB/s 16861690 40.67 lz4hc r131 level 4 70 MB/s 2499 MB/s 14557596 35.11 lz4hc r131 level 9 30 MB/s 2536 MB/s 14006633 33.78 lz4hc r131 level 12 27 MB/s 2536 MB/s 13995894 33.76 lz4hc r131 level 16 27 MB/s 2537 MB/s 13995894 33.76 lzf 3.6 level 0 275 MB/s 602 MB/s 20788247 50.14 lzf 3.6 level 1 276 MB/s 635 MB/s 19701097 47.52 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 70 MB/s 500 MB/s 21258007 51.28 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 41 MB/s 503 MB/s 18766104 45.26 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 21 MB/s 548 MB/s 17083163 41.21 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 7.18 MB/s 642 MB/s 15354723 37.04 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 9.65 MB/s 216 MB/s 13254015 31.97 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.79 MB/s 332 MB/s 9988909 24.09 lzjb 2010 257 MB/s 442 MB/s 25415740 61.30 lzma 9.38 level 0 22 MB/s 75 MB/s 12704878 30.64 lzma 9.38 level 2 19 MB/s 94 MB/s 11298267 27.25 lzma 9.38 level 4 12 MB/s 101 MB/s 10831475 26.13 lzma 9.38 level 5 2.13 MB/s 122 MB/s 8797488 21.22 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 253 MB/s 465 MB/s 22060671 53.21 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 250 MB/s 524 MB/s 21825578 52.64 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 263 MB/s 546 MB/s 19983920 48.20 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 294 MB/s 537 MB/s 18773214 45.28 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 136 MB/s 565 MB/s 16407820 39.58 lzsse4 0.1 242 MB/s 3541 MB/s 16613479 40.07 lzsse8 0.1 241 MB/s 3378 MB/s 16775799 40.46 lzsse2 0.1 2.62 MB/s 4496 MB/s 12372209 29.84 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 390 MB/s 611 MB/s 18315816 44.18 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 195 MB/s 601 MB/s 15734418 37.95 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 48 MB/s 820 MB/s 15101357 36.43 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 93 MB/s 364 MB/s 18435248 44.47 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 58 MB/s 393 MB/s 16188981 39.05 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 36 MB/s 389 MB/s 15382920 37.10 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 27 MB/s 370 MB/s 15006287 36.20 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 135 MB/s 1872 MB/s 19174395 46.25 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 101 MB/s 1935 MB/s 18513087 44.65 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 88 MB/s 1947 MB/s 18410318 44.41 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 78 MB/s 346 MB/s 14991242 36.16 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 26 MB/s 366 MB/s 12213947 29.46 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 16 MB/s 369 MB/s 12073475 29.12 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 284 MB/s 519 MB/s 13759779 33.19 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 211 MB/s 432 MB/s 12990370 31.33 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 111 MB/s 401 MB/s 11917853 28.75 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 31 MB/s 463 MB/s 10591896 25.55 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 10 MB/s 484 MB/s 10118655 24.41 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 4.25 MB/s 459 MB/s 9454323 22.80 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 2.70 MB/s 344 MB/s 9120434 22.00 shrinker 0.1 333 MB/s 861 MB/s 18510142 44.65 wflz 2015-09-16 228 MB/s 762 MB/s 22825692 55.06 lzmat 1.01 32 MB/s 446 MB/s 14027055 33.83

Collected xml files, the optimal parse and the focus on matches instead of literals means LZSSE2 again performs very well, copying a lot of bytes per step and the control word probabilities suiting it well:

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 19297 MB/s 19297 MB/s 5345280 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1110 MB/s 18755 MB/s 5345280 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 671 MB/s 5292 MB/s 3573039 66.84 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 470 MB/s 1552 MB/s 1334659 24.97 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 472 MB/s 1559 MB/s 1334659 24.97 brieflz 1.1.0 196 MB/s 303 MB/s 1087960 20.35 crush 1.0 level 0 116 MB/s 518 MB/s 772420 14.45 crush 1.0 level 1 24 MB/s 676 MB/s 597351 11.18 crush 1.0 level 2 3.58 MB/s 715 MB/s 563740 10.55 fastlz 0.1 level 1 536 MB/s 951 MB/s 1385060 25.91 fastlz 0.1 level 2 525 MB/s 966 MB/s 1273649 23.83 lz4 r131 867 MB/s 3287 MB/s 1227495 22.96 lz4fast r131 level 3 920 MB/s 3297 MB/s 1294713 24.22 lz4fast r131 level 17 1141 MB/s 3400 MB/s 1671390 31.27 lz4hc r131 level 1 233 MB/s 3351 MB/s 1098791 20.56 lz4hc r131 level 4 137 MB/s 4096 MB/s 829982 15.53 lz4hc r131 level 9 56 MB/s 4454 MB/s 770453 14.41 lz4hc r131 level 12 49 MB/s 4465 MB/s 769600 14.40 lz4hc r131 level 16 49 MB/s 4461 MB/s 769600 14.40 lzf 3.6 level 0 521 MB/s 1083 MB/s 1438227 26.91 lzf 3.6 level 1 526 MB/s 1137 MB/s 1379833 25.81 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 97 MB/s 813 MB/s 1490854 27.89 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 65 MB/s 919 MB/s 1132076 21.18 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 42 MB/s 1015 MB/s 1017213 19.03 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 17 MB/s 1199 MB/s 849051 15.88 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 13 MB/s 503 MB/s 722379 13.51 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 3.93 MB/s 766 MB/s 533740 9.99 lzjb 2010 361 MB/s 582 MB/s 2130319 39.85 lzma 9.38 level 0 44 MB/s 170 MB/s 691236 12.93 lzma 9.38 level 2 44 MB/s 222 MB/s 570904 10.68 lzma 9.38 level 4 38 MB/s 230 MB/s 559244 10.46 lzma 9.38 level 5 6.88 MB/s 259 MB/s 484357 9.06 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 429 MB/s 711 MB/s 1844800 34.51 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 425 MB/s 803 MB/s 1794772 33.58 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 465 MB/s 862 MB/s 1574249 29.45 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 504 MB/s 822 MB/s 1501348 28.09 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 204 MB/s 934 MB/s 1232257 23.05 lzsse4 0.1 383 MB/s 4403 MB/s 1388503 25.98 lzsse8 0.1 381 MB/s 4179 MB/s 1406119 26.31 lzsse2 0.1 0.41 MB/s 6723 MB/s 767398 14.36 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 739 MB/s 1189 MB/s 1124708 21.04 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 422 MB/s 1332 MB/s 897312 16.79 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 89 MB/s 1575 MB/s 918580 17.18 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 213 MB/s 765 MB/s 1067378 19.97 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 149 MB/s 913 MB/s 892051 16.69 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 114 MB/s 949 MB/s 850394 15.91 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 96 MB/s 962 MB/s 834608 15.61 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 210 MB/s 2825 MB/s 1361662 25.47 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 135 MB/s 3059 MB/s 1234356 23.09 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 98 MB/s 3227 MB/s 1205281 22.55 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 147 MB/s 564 MB/s 965248 18.06 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 53 MB/s 683 MB/s 687997 12.87 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 28 MB/s 702 MB/s 658905 12.33 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 603 MB/s 955 MB/s 709132 13.27 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 523 MB/s 874 MB/s 695991 13.02 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 213 MB/s 905 MB/s 629082 11.77 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 90 MB/s 1122 MB/s 537682 10.06 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 46 MB/s 1209 MB/s 512754 9.59 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 8.47 MB/s 1288 MB/s 491938 9.20 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 7.37 MB/s 1298 MB/s 488349 9.14 shrinker 0.1 644 MB/s 1448 MB/s 1242035 23.24 wflz 2015-09-16 536 MB/s 1408 MB/s 1447468 27.08 lzmat 1.01 81 MB/s 835 MB/s 769801 14.40

The last file of Silesia, an x-ray medical image, is less compressible and suits LZSSE8.

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 15105 MB/s 15186 MB/s 8474240 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 1 1864 MB/s 15078 MB/s 8474240 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 3 980 MB/s 14815 MB/s 8474240 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 6 333 MB/s 14815 MB/s 8474240 100.00 blosclz 2015-11-10 level 9 206 MB/s 672 MB/s 8216913 96.96 brieflz 1.1.0 76 MB/s 133 MB/s 7333725 86.54 crush 1.0 level 0 17 MB/s 197 MB/s 6390926 75.42 crush 1.0 level 1 8.38 MB/s 201 MB/s 6256115 73.83 crush 1.0 level 2 4.37 MB/s 188 MB/s 5958599 70.31 fastlz 0.1 level 1 206 MB/s 698 MB/s 8202940 96.80 fastlz 0.1 level 2 228 MB/s 702 MB/s 8200360 96.77 lz4 r131 1321 MB/s 6763 MB/s 8390195 99.01 lz4fast r131 level 3 1912 MB/s 8093 MB/s 8460144 99.83 lz4fast r131 level 17 3609 MB/s 8976 MB/s 8503227 100.34 lz4hc r131 level 1 82 MB/s 2488 MB/s 7569783 89.33 lz4hc r131 level 4 45 MB/s 2255 MB/s 7177516 84.70 lz4hc r131 level 9 44 MB/s 2255 MB/s 7175001 84.67 lz4hc r131 level 12 44 MB/s 2254 MB/s 7175001 84.67 lz4hc r131 level 16 44 MB/s 2256 MB/s 7175001 84.67 lzf 3.6 level 0 265 MB/s 845 MB/s 8283610 97.75 lzf 3.6 level 1 260 MB/s 743 MB/s 8111360 95.72 lzg 1.0.8 level 1 52 MB/s 564 MB/s 7811567 92.18 lzg 1.0.8 level 4 32 MB/s 527 MB/s 7710338 90.99 lzg 1.0.8 level 6 15 MB/s 490 MB/s 7531355 88.87 lzg 1.0.8 level 8 5.44 MB/s 475 MB/s 7239622 85.43 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 0 7.46 MB/s 120 MB/s 4622273 54.54 lzham 1.0 -d26 level 1 2.54 MB/s 128 MB/s 4549082 53.68 lzjb 2010 280 MB/s 602 MB/s 8353724 98.58 lzma 9.38 level 0 14 MB/s 36 MB/s 5198894 61.35 lzma 9.38 level 2 11 MB/s 41 MB/s 5069114 59.82 lzma 9.38 level 4 5.25 MB/s 47 MB/s 4923749 58.10 lzma 9.38 level 5 3.18 MB/s 40 MB/s 4487613 52.96 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 1 188 MB/s 559 MB/s 7821233 92.29 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 2 161 MB/s 708 MB/s 7821232 92.29 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 3 273 MB/s 706 MB/s 7763663 91.61 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 4 274 MB/s 468 MB/s 7533798 88.90 lzrw 15-Jul-1991 level 5 116 MB/s 476 MB/s 7375665 87.04 lzsse4 0.1 177 MB/s 2383 MB/s 7525821 88.81 lzsse8 0.1 174 MB/s 3074 MB/s 7248659 85.54 lzsse2 0.1 2.91 MB/s 1626 MB/s 7035769 83.03 quicklz 1.5.0 level 1 386 MB/s 330 MB/s 7440632 87.80 quicklz 1.5.0 level 2 152 MB/s 285 MB/s 6952012 82.04 quicklz 1.5.0 level 3 39 MB/s 590 MB/s 6713171 79.22 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 1 37 MB/s 592 MB/s 7933653 93.62 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 4 27 MB/s 394 MB/s 7893419 93.15 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 8 20 MB/s 353 MB/s 7914786 93.40 yalz77 2015-09-19 level 12 15 MB/s 347 MB/s 7904338 93.27 yappy 2014-03-22 level 1 89 MB/s 4859 MB/s 8328020 98.27 yappy 2014-03-22 level 10 89 MB/s 4801 MB/s 8327929 98.27 yappy 2014-03-22 level 100 89 MB/s 4798 MB/s 8327919 98.27 zlib 1.2.8 level 1 44 MB/s 229 MB/s 6033932 71.20 zlib 1.2.8 level 6 23 MB/s 219 MB/s 6045117 71.34 zlib 1.2.8 level 9 23 MB/s 219 MB/s 6045038 71.33 zstd v0.4.1 level 1 593 MB/s 680 MB/s 6772806 79.92 zstd v0.4.1 level 2 269 MB/s 596 MB/s 6688571 78.93 zstd v0.4.1 level 5 57 MB/s 275 MB/s 5748916 67.84 zstd v0.4.1 level 9 14 MB/s 229 MB/s 5368140 63.35 zstd v0.4.1 level 13 8.18 MB/s 223 MB/s 5317081 62.74 zstd v0.4.1 level 17 5.96 MB/s 215 MB/s 5306998 62.63 zstd v0.4.1 level 20 5.89 MB/s 217 MB/s 5306994 62.63 shrinker 0.1 310 MB/s 1332 MB/s 7709609 90.98 wflz 2015-09-16 126 MB/s 1531 MB/s 8007717 94.49 lzmat 1.01 45 MB/s 334 MB/s 6953823 82.06

Here’s enwik9 from the Large Text Compression Benchmark, mainly for completeness, as there is a quite large number of published results for this benchmark elsewhere. Note, I used 128MiB blocksize for this test, instead of the default as used on the other tests. Curiously here, we actually beat memcpy, probably due to some OS related memory management shenanigans:

Compressor name Compression Decompress. Compr. size Ratio memcpy 3606 MB/s 3627 MB/s 1000000000 100.00 lz4 r131 478 MB/s 2648 MB/s 509203962 50.92 lz4hc r131 level 1 130 MB/s 2508 MB/s 433450594 43.35 lz4hc r131 level 4 73 MB/s 2663 MB/s 384213411 38.42 lz4hc r131 level 12 36 MB/s 2706 MB/s 374049977 37.40 lz4hc r131 level 16 36 MB/s 2715 MB/s 374049340 37.40 lzsse2 0.1 0.14 MB/s 3836 MB/s 340268143 34.03 lzsse4 0.1 220 MB/s 3322 MB/s 425848263 42.58 lzsse8 0.1 225 MB/s 3214 MB/s 427471454 42.75

Future Work

Currently, this experiment is pretty young and I’m sure there are plenty of potential improvements and optimizations I haven’t yet thought of.

Here are a few I have:

An adaptive threshold that tries to balance between match and literal lengths in controls, to be able to copy the maximum amount of bytes on average per decompression step, as well to get some wins in terms of compression ratio. This is critically important as it will lead to a single codec that is more generically applicable, as well as performing better.

Try and implement something closer to LZ4 with alternating literal length/match sequences instead of the threshold encoding. Should give better performance on literal heavy data, but would require using the carry value for both literals and matches.

Implement a much faster matching algorithm for the optimal parse (suffix array or a much better tree implementation) and add an optimal parse implementation for all variants. Also, generally make the compressors perform better.

Get this working and producing decent machine code on other compilers and OSs (at least clang, other versions of Visual Studio and gcc).

Turning this into an actual production quality library if people are interested.

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