Patent ID: 8358695
Filing Date: 2013-01-22
Classification: G06F,G09G,H04N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for attaching a motion search hardware assist function to a processing element (PE) and its local memory, the apparatus comprising: a PE attached to a local memory; a current macro block storage unit separately attached to the local memory; a hardware assist controller coupled to the PE, wherein iterative operations, initiated in the hardware assist controller by a processing element instruction received from the PE, copy a current macro block from the local memory to the current macro block storage unit; a search window reference storage unit having storage for N rows of pixels from a search window, the search window reference storage unit attached to the local memory separate from the PE attachment to the local memory, wherein the N rows of pixels from a search window are copied from the local memory to the search window reference storage unit; N arithmetic pipelines attached to the current macro block storage unit and the search window reference storage unit, wherein each arithmetic pipeline is independent of the other N−1 arithmetic pipelines, provides the same function on different data, and is configured to operate under control of the hardware assist controller in parallel with the other N−1 arithmetic pipelines on a different row of the N rows of pixels accessed from the search window reference storage unit and a corresponding row of the current macro block of the current macro block storage unit; and an accumulator attached to the N arithmetic pipelines and configured to accumulate results from the N arithmetic pipelines, to produce independent results for different organizations of macro blocks.