A modular high-throughput architecture for logarithmic search block-matching motion estimation

In this paper, a high-throughput modular architecture for a logarithmic search block-matching algorithm is presented. The design efforts are focused on exploiting the search area data dependencies using special data input ordering constraints. The input bandwidth problem has been solved by a random access on-chip memory, and a simple address generation procedure has been described. Furthermore, this architecture can handle a large search range with unequal horizontal and vertical spans using a technique called pipeline interleaving. Compared to the existing architectures for the three-step search BMA, this architecture delivers a high throughput rate with fewer input lines, and is linearly scalable. © 1998 IEEE.