Re:How LZ4 works (2016)
by kzrdude on Sunday June 25, 2017 @11:52AM
(#14630580)
Doesn't that also explain why it came later? The low compression ratio is useful nowadays, with large throughputs.
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Maybe. It might just be that the tricks it plays matter a lot on newer CPUs, and older fast compressors played older tricks.
I think the ratio of CPU cycles to i/o bandwidth is what really matters. Presumably the optimal tradeoff between CPU throughout and compression ratios depends on that and varies over time.
The low compression ratio / fast speed trade-off has always been valuable.
For example, block-level filesystem compression (what lz4 is used for with zfs) has been valuable for filesystems essentially forever.
There's always been a need for very high throughput on the local filesystem.