An image decoding apparatus , comprising: an entropy decoder configured to determine a size of a minimum coding unit, wherein the minimum coding unit represents a smallest coding unit that can be split from a largest coding unit based on a quad-tree structure, wherein the size of the minimum coding unit is determined as 8x8, to derive a current coding unit, wherein a coding unit is split into multiple coding units in a current picture, and the current coding unit is one of the multiple coding units and wherein intra prediction is applied on the current coding unit, to check whether a size of the current coding unit is equal to the size of the minimum coding unit, to derive one or multiple prediction units from the current coding unit based on the result of the checking, wherein a number of the multiple prediction units is equal to 4 and the multiple prediction units have a same size as each other, wherein if the size of the current coding unit is equal to the size of the minimum coding unit: - explicit partition information is received and the one or multiple prediction units are derived based on the explicit partition information, and if the size of the current coding unit is not equal to the size of the minimum coding unit: - the one prediction unit of a same size as the current coding unit is derived without receiving the explicit partition information, - deriving the multiple prediction units from the current coding unit is not available, and to receive intra prediction mode information for each of the derived one or multiple prediction units; and a predictor configured to perform the intra prediction with respect to the derived one or multiple prediction units based on the intra prediction mode information. an entropy decoder configured to determine a size of a minimum coding unit, wherein the minimum coding unit represents a smallest coding unit that can be split from a largest coding unit based on a quad-tree structure, wherein the size of the minimum coding unit is determined as 8x8, to derive a current coding unit, wherein a coding unit is split into multiple coding units in a current picture, and the current coding unit is one of the multiple coding units and wherein intra prediction is applied on the current coding unit, to check whether a size of the current coding unit is equal to the size of the minimum coding unit, to derive one or multiple prediction units from the current coding unit based on the result of the checking, wherein a number of the multiple prediction units is equal to 4 and the multiple prediction units have a same size as each other, wherein if the size of the current coding unit is equal to the size of the minimum coding unit: - explicit partition information is received and the one or multiple prediction units are derived based on the explicit partition information, and - explicit partition information is received and the one or multiple prediction units are derived based on the explicit partition information, and if the size of the current coding unit is not equal to the size of the minimum coding unit: - the one prediction unit of a same size as the current coding unit is derived without receiving the explicit partition information, - deriving the multiple prediction units from the current coding unit is not available, and - the one prediction unit of a same size as the current coding unit is derived without receiving the explicit partition information, - deriving the multiple prediction units from the current coding unit is not available, and to receive intra prediction mode information for each of the derived one or multiple prediction units; and a predictor configured to perform the intra prediction with respect to the derived one or multiple prediction units based on the intra prediction mode information. <EOS>