Methods and apparatuses relating to data decompression are described. In one embodiment, a hardware processor includes a core to execute a thread and offload a decompression thread for an encoded, compressed data stream comprising a literal code, a length code, and a distance code, and a hardware decompression accelerator to execute the decompression thread to selectively provide the encoded, compressed data stream to a first circuit to serially decode the literal code to a literal symbol, serially decode the length code to a length symbol, and serially decode the distance code to a distance symbol, and selectively provide the encoded, compressed data stream to a second circuit to look up the literal symbol for the literal code from a table, look up the length symbol for the length code from the table, and look up the distance symbol for the distance code from the table.