Multiple sequence MPEG decoder

• US 5,812,791 A
• Filed: 12/19/1996
• Issued: 09/22/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Cagent Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Baldwin, James Armand, Wasserman, Steve C., Mitsuoka, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): ASSOUAD, PATRICK J
• Application Number:
  US08/769,346
• Time in Patent Office: 642 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.77, 348/403, 348/416, 348/420, 348/426, 382/166, 382/232, 382/236, 382/246, 382/250
• US Class Current: 709/247
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/43 Hardware specially adapted for motion estimation or compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/433 characterised by techniques for memory access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/90 using coding techniques not provided for in groups H04N19/10-H04N19/85, e.g. fractals

Abstract

An MPEG decoding system in a host system, including software instructions for decoding a first portion of MPEG encoded data, including instructions for extracting macroblock data from said MPEG encoded data and for establishing a decoding order for said macroblock data. The system further includes hardware for extracting motion vector data and display data from said macroblocks. An entropy decoder for decoding encoded AC coefficients and DC coefficients in said display data is provided. An inverse quantization unit inversely quantizing said coefficients into a resulting array of decoded AC coefficients is also provided. An de-zig-zag unit scans said array of decoded AC coefficients and DC coefficients in a zig-zag pattern to provide a block of discrete cosine transformed coefficients. A inverse discrete cosine transform unit takes the inverse discrete cosine transform of the block of discrete cosine transformed coefficients to provide a first set of pel data. A motion vector processor decodes the motion vector data to provide a second set of pel data, and a motion compensation unit adds the first and second sets of pel data.

Claims

1. An MPEG decoder in a host computer system, the host computer system including a host processor, a system memory, a system bus, and a system memory controller, comprising:

a memory controller interface coupled to the system memory controller;

a video stream DMA controller, coupled to the memory controller interface;

a parsing means for distributing coded motion vector information blocks and image data information blocks;

an entropy decoding means, coupled to the parsing means, receiving distributed image data blocks and decoding the image data blocks into quantized coefficient blocks;

an inverse quantization means for receiving the quantized coefficient blocks and performing an inverse quantization on said quantized coefficient blocks to form pixel value blocks;

an inverse zig-zag means for converting the pixel value blocks to pixel coefficients;

an inverse discrete cosine transform means for calculating the inverse discrete cosine transform of the pixel coefficients to produce pixel display values;

a motion vector processor means, coupled to the parsing means and receiving the distributed motion vector blocks, for decoding the motion vector blocks into pixel motion vectors;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the motion vector analyzer and the inverse discrete cosine transform means, for adding the pixel motion vectors and pixel display values;

a video output DMA controller, coupled to the motion compensation unit and the memory controller interface, for ordering the pictures in an output order; and

a video output formatter, coupled to the video output DMA controller and the memory controller interface,

wherein the system memory includes data buffers, wherein data to be decoded is provided in said buffers identified by a plurality of addresses, and wherein said DMA controller is operatively coupled to said buffers.

2. The decoder of claim 1 wherein the bitstream DMA controller includes a FIFO RAM, a FIFO RAM controller, an end of picture detector, and an address generator for generating said addresses.

3. The decoder of claim 2 wherein the bitstream DMA controller includes an address register queue, said register queue containing system memory addresses for the coded data.

4. The decoder of claim 3 wherein the address register queue includes a current address register, a next address register, a current length register and a next length register.

5. An MPEG decoder in a host computer system, the host computer system including a host processor, a system memory, a system bus, and a system memory controller, comprising:

a memory controller interface coupled to the system memory controller;

a video stream DMA controller, coupled to the memory controller interface;

a parsing means for distributing coded motion vector information blocks and image data information blocks;

an entropy decoding means, coupled to the parsing means, receiving distributed image data blocks and decoding the image data blocks into quantized coefficient blocks;

an inverse quantization means for receiving the quantized coefficient blocks and performing an inverse quantization on said quantized coefficient blocks to form pixel value blocks;

an inverse zig-zag means for converting the pixel value blocks to pixel coefficients;

an inverse discrete cosine transform means for calculating the inverse discrete cosine transform of the pixel coefficients to produce pixel display values;

a motion vector processor means, coupled to the parsing means and receiving the distributed motion vector blocks, for decoding the motion vector blocks into pixel motion vectors;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the motion vector analyzer and the inverse discrete cosine transform means, for adding the pixel motion vectors and pixel display values;

a video output DMA controller, coupled to the motion compensation unit and the memory controller interface, for ordering the pictures in an output order; and

a video output formatter, coupled to the video output DMA controller and the memory controller interface,

wherein the parsing means comprises a bit shifter, a state machine and a FIFO RAM.

6. The decoder of claim 5 wherein the parsing means contains programmable registers for receiving context information including image size data and picture coding information.

7. The decoder of claim 6 wherein the image size data includes an macroblock width and macroblock height.

8. The decoder of claim 7 wherein the picture coding information includes the picture coding type, the forward r size, backward r size, the forward pel vector and backward pel vector.

9. The decoder of claim 5 wherein the state machine is coupled to the motion vector processor means, and said FIFO.

10. The decoder of claim 9 wherein an output of said state machine comprises motion vector data provided to the motion vector processing means and another output of said state machine comprises picture data provided to said FIFO.

11. The decoder of claim 9 wherein said system memory includes a configuration register containing configuration information on said parsing means, entropy decoding means, motion compensation unit, video output DMA controller and video output formatter.

12. The decoder of claim 9 wherein said inverse quantization means includes a quantization table register.

13. An MPEG decoder in a host computer system, the host computer system including a host processor, a system memory, a system bus, and a system memory controller, the system memory containing data to be decoded, comprising:

control means for instructing the host processor to deconstruct the encoded image data to extract macroblock level data comprising encoded picture data blocks and motion vector blocks, for instructing the host processor to determine the decoding order of the macroblock data, and for extracting picture data and quantization table data from the encoded image data;

a system memory controller interface coupled to the system memory controller via the system bus;

a video image data DMA controller, coupled to the system memory controller interface, the DMA controller including a video stream buffer receiving picture data from the system memory under direction of the control means;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the system memory controller interface;

a slice and macroblock decompression unit, coupled to the video stream buffer and the motion compensation unit, the decompression unit comprising;

a configurable parser, coupled to the video stream buffer for directing pixel data blocks and motion vector blocks;

a configurable decoding unit receiving pixel data blocks and performing entropy decoding and inverse quantization on said pixel data blocks;

a pixel data block inverse zig-zag scan unit, receiving pixel data blocks from the configurable decoding unit;

an inverse discrete cosine transform unit receiving pixel data blocks from the inverse zigzag scan unit and performing and outputting pixel data blocks having decoded pixel value data; and

a motion vector processor, coupled to the parser, receiving the motion vector blocks;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the inverse discrete cosine transform unit and the motion vector processor;

a video output DMA controller, coupled to the system memory interface controller and the motion compensation unit; and

a video output formatter, coupled to the system memory interface controller and the motion video output DMA controller,

wherein said control means includes means for defining, in said system memory, a plurality of buffers including at least configuration buffers, data buffers, and display buffers.

14. The decoder of claim 13 wherein said data buffers include said encoded data blocks.

18. The decoder of claim 13 wherein the buffers include a reference buffer, operatively coupled to the motion compensation unit, storing reference image data.

19. The decoder of claim 18 wherein two reference buffers are provided, and reference picture information is alternatively written to each said buffer.

20. The decoder of claim 13 wherein the registers include a strip buffer register, operatively coupled to the motion compensation unit and the video output DMA controller, storing decoded image data.

21. The decoder of claim 13 wherein the display buffers include display data output from the video output formatter.

22. The decoder of claim 13 wherein the entropy decoding unit includes a register to store quantization table data.

23. The decoder of claim 13 wherein the video image data DMA controller includes an address queue and a length queue, the address and length queues including current and future system memory addresses where coded data is located in system memory.

15. An MPEG decoder in a host computer system, the host computer system including a host processor, a system memory, a system bus, and a system memory controller, comprising:

a memory controller interface coupled to the system memory controller;

a video stream DMA controller, coupled to the memory controller interface;

a parsing means for distributing coded motion vector information blocks and image data information blocks;

an entropy decoding means, coupled to the parsing means, receiving distributed image data blocks and decoding the image data blocks into quantized coefficient blocks;

an inverse quantization means for receiving the quantized coefficient blocks and performing an inverse quantization on said quantized coefficient blocks to form pixel value blocks;

an inverse zig-zag means for converting the pixel value blocks to pixel coefficients;

an inverse discrete cosine transform means for calculating the inverse discrete cosine transform of the pixel coefficients to produce pixel display values;

a motion vector processor means, coupled to the parsing means and receiving the distributed motion vector blocks, for decoding the motion vector blocks into pixel motion vectors;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the motion vector analyzer and the inverse discrete cosine transform means, for adding the pixel motion vectors and pixel display values;

a video output DMA controller, coupled to the motion compensation unit and the memory controller interface, for ordering the pictures in an output order;

a video output formatter, coupled to the video output DMA controller and the memory controller interface; and

hardware configuration registers, said configuration registers including system configuration information for said configurable parser, said configurable decoding unit, said video output DMA controller, and said video output formatter.

16. The decoder of claim 15 wherein said parser includes a parser configuration register for storing context information.

17. The decoder of claim 15 wherein said parser configuration information includes at least the picture coding type, the forward r size, and the backward r size of the data to be decoded.

24. An integrated circuit for decoding coded data in a host system, the host system including a host system memory, a host system processor, a host system memory controller, and a host system bus, the integrated circuit comprising:

a memory controller interface, coupled to the host system memory controller by the host system bus;

a input/output bus, operatively coupled to the host system memory controller and the memory controller interface;

an encoded data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the I/O bus;

a output data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

an output formatter, coupled to the I/O bus; and

data decompression hardware, having a first I/O port operatively coupled to the encoded data DMA controller and a second I/O port coupled to the motion compensation unit, said hardware receiving encoded MPEG video macroblock information at the first I/O port and outputting decoded MPEG video data at the second I/O port,

wherein the system memory includes data buffers, wherein data to be decoded is provided in said buffers identified by a plurality of addressees, and wherein said encoded data DMA controller is operatively coupled to said buffers via the memory controller interface.

25. An integrated circuit for decoding coded data in a host system, the host system including a host system memory, a host system processor, a host system memory controller, and a host system bus, the integrated circuit comprising:

a memory controller interface, coupled to the host system memory controller by the host system bus;

a input/output bus, operatively coupled to the host system memory controller and the memory controller interface;

an encoded data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the I/O bus;

a output data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

an output formatter, coupled to the I/O bus; and

data decompression hardware, having a first I/O port operatively coupled to the encoded data DMA controller and a second I/O port coupled to the motion compensation unit, said hardware receiving encoded MPEG video macroblock information at the first I/O port and outputting decoded MPEG video data at the second I/O port,

wherein the encoded data DMA controller includes a FIFO RAM, a FIFO RAM controller, an end of picture detector, and an address generator for generating said addresses.

26. The circuit of claim 25 wherein the address generator includes registers containing configuration information regarding the encoded data location in system memory.

27. The circuit of claim 26 wherein the registers include a current address register, a next address register, a current length register and a next length register.

28. An integrated circuit for decoding coded data in a host system, the host system including a host system memory, a host system processor, a host system memory controller, and a host system bus, the integrated circuit comprising:

a memory controller interface, coupled to the host system memory controller by the host system bus;

a input/output bus, operatively coupled to the host system memory controller and the memory controller interface;

an encoded data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the I/O bus;

a output data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

an output formatter, coupled to the I/O bus;

data decompression hardware, having a first I/O port operatively coupled to the encoded data DMA controller and a second I/O port coupled to the motion compensation unit, said hardware receiving encoded MPEG video macroblock information at the first I/O port and outputting decoded MPEG video data at the second I/O port, wherein the data decompression hardware includes;

a configurable parser, coupled to the system memory, for directing encoded data in pixel data blocks and motion vector blocks;

a configurable decoding unit receiving pixel data blocks and performing entropy decoding and inverse quantization on said pixel data blocks;

a pixel data block inverse zig-zag scan unit, receiving pixel data blocks from the configurable decoding unit;

an inverse discrete cosine transform unit receiving pixel data blocks from the inverse zig-zag scan unit and performing and outputting pixel data blocks having decoded pixel value data; and

a motion vector processor, coupled to the parser, receiving the motion vector blocks and generating motion pixel motion data.

29. The circuit of claim 28 wherein the configurable parser includes configuration registers for storing context information on said encoded video data.

30. The circuit of claim 28 wherein the configurable decoding unit includes a register for storing quantization tables.

31. An integrated circuit for decoding coded data in a host system, the host system including a host system memory, a host system processor, a host system memory controller, and a host system bus, the integrated circuit comprising:

a memory controller interface, coupled to the host system memory controller by the host system bus;

a input/output bus, operatively coupled to the host system memory controller and the memory controller interface;

an encoded data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the I/O bus;

a output data DMA controller, coupled to the I/O bus;

an output formatter, coupled to the I/O bus; and

data decompression hardware, having a first I/O port operatively coupled to the encoded data DMA controller and a second I/O port coupled to the motion compensation unit, said hardware receiving encoded MPEG video macroblock information at the first I/O port and outputting decoded MPEG video data at the second I/O port,

wherein the data decompression hardware further includes;

a motion compensation unit, coupled to the inverse discrete cosine transform unit and the motion vector processor;

a video output DMA controller, coupled to the system memory interface controller and the motion compensation unit; and

a video output formatter, coupled to the system memory interface controller and the motion video output DMA controller.

32. An MPEG decoding system, comprising:

a host system including a host system memory, a host system memory controller, a host system processor, and a host system bus, the host system memory being divided into at least a storage area buffer, a first and a second display buffer buffers, a coded data buffer, and a first and second reference buffers;

MPEG video data decoding hardware including;

means for parsing image data blocks and motion vector blocks from macroblock data;

means for constructing motion vector data from coded motion vector blocks;

means for performing entropy decoding on coded image data blocks;

means for performing inverse quantization of the coded image data blocks;

means for taking the inverse discrete cosine transform of the coded image data;

a motion compensation means, coupled to the means for taking the inverse discrete cosine transform and the motion vector processor, and operatively coupled to the system memory, for constructing picture data from the image data and motion vector blocks;

a video output DMA controller, operatively coupled to the system memory controller and the motion compensation means;

a video output formatter, coupled to the system memory and the video output DMA controller; and

instruction means, provided in the storage area and executable by the host system processor, for directing encoded image data to the parsing means in a decoding order, for configuring the means for parsing image data blocks, and interacting with the host system memory to store decoded image data, display image data, and configuration data for the decoding hardware,

wherein said instruction means includes means for defining, in said system memory, a plurality of buffers including at least data buffers, reference buffers, and display buffers.

33. The decoder of claim 32 wherein said data buffers include said encoded data blocks.

36. The decoder of claim 32 wherein the plurality of buffers further includes a strip buffer register, operatively coupled to the motion compensation unit and the video output DMA controller, storing decoded image data.

34. An MPEG decoding system, comprising:

a host system including a host system memory, a host system memory controller, a host system processor, and a host system bus, the host system memory being divided into at least a storage area buffer, a first and a second display buffer buffers, a coded data buffer, and a first and second reference buffers;

MPEG video data decoding hardware including;

means for parsing image data blocks and motion vector blocks from macroblock data;

means for constructing motion vector data from coded motion vector blocks;

means for performing entropy decoding on coded image data blocks;

means for performing inverse quantization of the coded image data blocks;

means for taking the inverse discrete cosine transform of the coded image data;

a motion compensation means, coupled to the means for taking the inverse discrete cosine transform and the motion vector processor, and operatively coupled to the system memory, for constructing picture data from the image data and motion vector blocks;

a video output DMA controller, operatively coupled to the system memory controller and the motion compensation means;

a video output formatter, coupled to the system memory and the video output DMA controller; and

instruction means, provided in the storage area and executable by the host system processor, for directing encoded image data to the parsing means in a decoding order, for configuring the means for parsing image data blocks, and interacting with the host system memory to store decoded image data, display image data, and configuration data for the decoding hardware,

system configuration registers wherein said configuration registers include configuration information for said configurable parser, said configurable decoding unit, said video output DMA controller and Video Output Formatter.

35. The decoder of claim 34 wherein said parser includes a configuration data register including at least the picture coding type, the forward r size, and the backward r size of the data to be decoded.