An all-ASIC implementation of a low bit-rate video codec

After many years of intensive deliberation, an international low-bit-rate video coding standard, known as CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee) Recommendation H.261, has been completed. The H.261 covers a wide range of bit rates at p*64 kbs, where p=1, 2, . . ., 30. A great deal of real-time signal processing power is required to compress an NTSC or other similar video signals to these rates for transport and to reconstruct the original signal back for display. In order to demonstrate the video quality of the newly established standard and the feasibility of a cost-effective VLSI solution, a real-time video codec based on H.261 has been constructed using ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). A single-board research prototype consisting of 11 ASICs with an aggregate signal processing power of approximately two billion operations per second is presented. >