Publication: Parallel Compression with BZIP2

All || By Area || By Year

Title	Parallel Compression with BZIP2
Authors/Editors*	Jeff Gilchrist
Where published*	16th IASTED Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems
How published*	Proceedings
Year*	2004
Volume	0
Number	0
Pages	559-564
Publisher	ACTA Press
Keywords	Data Compression, Parallel Computing, Parallel Algorithms, pthreads
Link
Abstract	A parallel implementation of the bzip2 block-sorting lossless compression program is described. The performance of the parallel implementation is compared to the sequential bzip2 program running on various shared memory parallel architectures. The parallel bzip2 algorithm works by taking the blocks of input data and running them through the Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT) simultaneously on multiple processors using pthreads. The output of the algorithm is fully compatible with the sequential version of bzip2 which is in wide use today. The results show that a significant, near-linear speedup is achieved by using the parallel bzip2 program on systems with multiple processors. This will greatly reduce the time it takes to compress large amounts of data while remaining fully compatible with the sequential version of bzip2.