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Serial and Parallel FPGA-based Variable Block Size Motion Estimation Processors

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Abstract

H.264/AVC is the latest video coding standard adopting variable block size motion estimation (VBS-ME), quarter-pixel accuracy, motion vector prediction and multi-reference frames for motion estimation. These new features result in much higher computation requirements than previous coding standards. In this paper we propose a novel most significant bit (MSB) first bit-serial architecture for full-search block matching VBS-ME, and compare it with systolic implementations. Since the nature of MSB-first processing enables early termination of the sum of absolute difference (SAD) calculation, the average hardware performance can be enhanced. Five different designs, one and two dimensional systolic and tree implementations along with bit-serial, are compared in terms of performance, pixel memory bandwidth, occupied area and power consumption.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

    Brian M. H. Li & Philip H. W. Leong

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  1. Brian M. H. Li
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  2. Philip H. W. Leong
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Correspondence to Philip H. W. Leong.

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Li, B.M.H., Leong, P.H.W. Serial and Parallel FPGA-based Variable Block Size Motion Estimation Processors. J Sign Process Syst Sign Image 51, 77–98 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-007-0143-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-007-0143-9

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