Gallium arsenide processing elements for motion estimation full-search algorithm

Abstract

The Block-Matching motion estimation algorithm (BMA) is the most popular method for motion-compensated coding of image sequence. Among the several possible searching methods to compute this algorithm, the full-search BMA (FBMA) has obtained great interest from the scientific community due to its regularity, optimal solution and low control overhead which simplifies its VLSI realization. On the other hand, its main drawback is the demand of an enormous amount of computation. There are different ways of overcoming this factor, being the use of advanced technologies, such as Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), the one adopted in this article together with different techniques to reduce area overhead. By exploiting GaAs properties, improvements can be obtained in the implementation of feasible systems for real time video compression architectures. Different primitives used in the implementation of processing elements (PE) for a FBMA scheme are presented. As a result, PEs running at 270 MHz have been developed in order to study its functionality and performance. From these results, an implementation for MPEG applications is proposed, leading to an architecture running at 145 MHz with a power dissipation of 3.48 W and an area of 11.5 mm2.