1. A binary Tree-Searched Vector Quantization data compression processing assembly comprising: a vector memory, for receiving and storing input samples forming an input vector; a vector codebook memory, storing a plurality of entries, one of said entries for each of a plurality of nodes of a vector search tree, each of said nodes representing a branch point at which different directions, towards different nodes, are possible, each of said entries associated with a particular node and including a single quantized code vector of the same dimensionality as said input vector, and an associated single valued scalar; a memory indexing element storing an address of a current node, addressing said vector codebook memory with said address, to obtain said single code vector and said associated single valued scalar for the current node; and a computation unit, including comparing means for comparing the input vector with said single code vector for the current node and with said associated single valued scalar for the current node to determine a direction of branching at each node of the tree.