A compression first in, first out (cFIFO) that includes at least two FIFOs is described. A first FIFO is used to store instances of higher words in data entries, and a second FIFO is used to store corresponding instances of lower words in the data entries. If an instance of the higher word for a data entry has a different value than an immediately preceding stored instance of the higher word associated with at least an immediately preceding data entry which is stored in the second FIFO, memory pointers are incremented so that a subsequent instance of the higher word will be stored in the second FIFO without overwriting the instance of the higher word. Otherwise, the memory pointers are unchanged, which associates the instance of the lower word with the immediately preceding stored instance of the higher word.