Apparatus for assisting video compression in a computer system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for assisting in compressing video data in a computer system including a central processing unit and a system memory, comprising:
- a video input port configured to electrically couple to a video unit for receiving video data for a current video frame from streaming video data;
a video input buffer coupled to the video input port for storing the video data from the video input port;
a previous frame buffer for storing at least a portion of a previous video frame;
an operation unit coupled to the video input buffer and the previous frame buffer for computing a difference frame from data from the video input buffer and data from the previous frame buffer; and
a result buffer coupled to the operation unit, the result buffer further including a memory interface configured to couple with the system memory via a first bus independent of a second bus configured for coupling with the central processing unit via a north bridge chip, the result buffer for temporarily buffering the difference frame prior to storing the difference frame in the system memory, the apparatus configured to operate within the north bridge chip of the computer system to enable the central processing unit to retrieve the difference frame exclusive of the second bus and directly from the system memory via the north bridge chip for further compression of the video data by the central processing unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus that facilitates compression of video data in a computer system by performing the time-consuming task of computing the difference between successive frames of video data. This frees the often-overburdened central processing unit from this time-consuming compression operation and can thereby improve the handling of video data. Thus, one embodiment of the present invention can be characterized as an apparatus for compressing video data. This apparatus includes a video input port, for receiving video data for a current video frame, and a video input buffer, for storing video data from the video input port. The apparatus additionally includes a previous frame buffer, for storing at least a portion of a previous video frame, as well as an operation unit, for performing an operation between video data from the video input buffer and video data from the previous frame buffer. The embodiment also includes a result buffer coupled to the operation unit, for storing the result of an operation from the operation unit.
24 Citations
17 Claims
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1. An apparatus for assisting in compressing video data in a computer system including a central processing unit and a system memory, comprising:
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a video input port configured to electrically couple to a video unit for receiving video data for a current video frame from streaming video data;
a video input buffer coupled to the video input port for storing the video data from the video input port;
a previous frame buffer for storing at least a portion of a previous video frame;
an operation unit coupled to the video input buffer and the previous frame buffer for computing a difference frame from data from the video input buffer and data from the previous frame buffer; and
a result buffer coupled to the operation unit, the result buffer further including a memory interface configured to couple with the system memory via a first bus independent of a second bus configured for coupling with the central processing unit via a north bridge chip, the result buffer for temporarily buffering the difference frame prior to storing the difference frame in the system memory, the apparatus configured to operate within the north bridge chip of the computer system to enable the central processing unit to retrieve the difference frame exclusive of the second bus and directly from the system memory via the north bridge chip for further compression of the video data by the central processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus for compressing video data in a computer system including a central processing unit, comprising:
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a video input port configured to electrically couple to a video unit for receiving video data for a current video frame from streaming video data;
a video input buffer coupled to the video input port for storing the video data from the video input port;
a previous frame buffer for storing a least a portion of a previous video frame;
an exclusive-OR unit coupled to the video input buffer and the previous frame buffer for computing a difference frame from data from the video input buffer and data from the previous frame buffer;
a result buffer coupled to the exclusive-OR unit for temporarily buffering the difference frame;
a memory port coupled to the previous frame buffer and the result buffer, the memory port independent from the video input port; and
a system memory coupled to the memory port for storing the video data from the video input port and the difference frame from the result buffer, wherein the video data is stored in a current frame in the memory, the apparatus configured to operate within a north bridge chip of the computer system to enable the central processing unit via the north bridge chip to retrieve the difference frame exclusive of a system bus directly from the system memory via the north bridge chip for further compression of the video data by the central processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification