Flexible macroblock odering with reduced data traffic and power consumption

• US 20070201559A1
• Filed: 02/24/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: North Star Innovations Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: He, Zhongli
• Granted Patent: US 7,924,925 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.240
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/00 Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/119 Adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision of a picture into rectangular or non-rectangular coding blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/129 Scanning of coding units, e.g. zig-zag scan of transform coefficients or flexible macroblock ordering [FMO]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• 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 19/423 characterised by memory arrangements H04N19/433 takes precedence

Abstract

A video encoder including a processing block and an external memory storing a current frame and a reference frame. The processing block includes a memory interface, a local memory and a processor. The processor encodes the current frame in raster scan macroblock order for FMO using information from the reference frame, converts encoded information into compressed information, and organizes the compressed information according to a predetermined FMO. The processor organizes the compressed information according to any suitable FMO organization such as scattered, interleaved, etc. The processor stores the compressed information into multiple slice groups into the local memory or into the external memory, where the slice groups are organized according to the FMO. The processor loads a search window macroblock into the local memory if not already stored in the local memory. The processor may generate unfiltered reconstructed information and store the unfiltered reconstructed information into the local memory.

Claims

1. A video processing system, comprising:

a memory which stores a current frame, a reference frame, and a plurality of slice groups; and

a video processor, coupled to said memory, which encodes said current frame in raster scan macroblock order for flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) using information from said reference frame, which converts encoded information into compressed information, and which stores said compressed information according to said FMO into said plurality of slice groups into said memory.

2. The video processing system of claim 1, further comprising an output circuit, coupled to said video processor, which sends said plurality of slice groups as a bitstream in slice group order.

3. The video processing system of claim 1, wherein said memory stores program code which is executed by said video processor to perform video processing functions.

4. The video processing system of claim 1, wherein:

said memory comprises a first memory and a second memory in which said first memory stores said current frame and said reference frame; and

wherein said video processor loads a macroblock of a search window of said reference frame from said first memory into said second memory while encoding said current frame if the macroblock is not already stored in said second memory.

5. The video processing system of claim 4, wherein:

said video processor converts said encoded information into unfiltered reconstructed information and stores said unfiltered reconstructed information into said second memory; and

wherein said video processor deblock filters said unfiltered reconstructed information and provides deblocked reconstructed information.

6. The video processing system of claim 1, wherein said memory and video processor are part of a battery-powered device.

7. A video encoder, comprising:

an external memory which stores a current frame and a reference frame; and

a processing block, comprising;

a memory interface coupled to said external memory;

a local memory coupled to said memory interface; and

a processor, coupled to said memory interface and said local memory, which encodes said current frame in raster scan macroblock order for flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) using information from said reference frame, which converts encoded information into compressed information, and which organizes said compressed information according to said FMO.

8. The video encoder of claim 7, wherein said processor organizes said compressed information according to a selected one of scattered FMO and interleaved FMO.

9. The video encoder of claim 7, wherein said processor stores said compressed information into a plurality of slice groups within said local memory in which said plurality of slice groups are organized according to said FMO.

10. The video encoder of claim 7, wherein said processor stores said compressed information into a plurality of slice groups within said external memory in which said plurality of slice groups are organized according to said FMO.

11. The video encoder of claim 7, wherein said processor loads a macroblock from said reference frame into said local memory which is part of a current search window and which is not already stored in said local memory.

12. The video encoder of claim 7, wherein said processor converts said encoded information into unfiltered reconstructed information, stores said unfiltered reconstructed information into said local memory, and deblock filters said unfiltered reconstructed information stored in said local memory to provide deblocked reconstructed information.

13. A method of encoding video, comprising:

encoding each macroblock of a current video frame in raster scan macroblock order for flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) using information from a reference frame and providing encoded information;

converting the encoded information into compressed information; and

storing the compressed information into a plurality of slice groups according to the FMO.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising converting the compressed information in slice group order according to the FMO into a bitstream.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said storing the compressed information into a plurality of slice groups comprises storing according to interleaved FMO.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said storing the compressed information into a plurality of slice groups comprises storing according to scattered FMO.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said encoding each macroblock of the current video frame comprises loading a macroblock of a search window of the reference frame stored in an external memory into a local memory if the macroblock is not already stored in the local memory.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

converting the encoded information into unfiltered reconstructed information;

storing the unfiltered reconstructed information into the local memory; and

deblock filtering the unfiltered reconstructed information using the unfiltered reconstructed information stored in the local memory and generating deblocked reconstructed information.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein said encoding and converting are according to the H.264 standard.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting information via a wireless channel and decoding the information by a wireless receiver.