Transparent EmbeddedCompression inSystems-on-Chip

Bandwidth to off-chip memory isa scarce resource incomplexSystems-on-Chip forembeddedmedia processing. We applyembeddedcompression forbandwidth- hungryimageprocessing functions inordertoalleviate this bandwidth bottleneck. Inoursolution embeddedcompression isimplemented aspartoftheSystem-on-Chip infrastructure, fully transparent forthehardwareand software image processing components. Henceitcanbe applied without requiring changestothesecomponents. We present the compression algorithm and demonstrate thatwe achieve significant bandwidth reductions (20%-40%)forimagedata atacceptable cost(approximately 1 mm2 in90nm CMOS) while preserving highimagequality. I.INTRODUCTION Theongoing advance ofICtechnology leads tosteadily andrapidly increasing computational powerformedia processing applications. Theincreased processing power alsorequires increased datathroughput. Thisholdsin particular forbandwidth-hungry applications, likevideo processing.