Patent ID: 8208553

Claim:
A method for quarter-pel motion compensated search comprising: issuing an instruction to a processing element (PE) configured to cause a command and parameters be passed to a hardware assist unit (HAU) configured to initiate a quarter-pel motion compensated search (QPMCS) operation pipelined on the HAU; interpolating a 4×4 block of current macro block pel position values in response to the command to produce at least eight neighboring quarter-pels per a first HAU pipeline stage; computing at least eight absolute value of difference (ABSDIFF) values between a current macro block pel and the at least eight neighboring quarter-pels per a second HAU pipeline stage while the first HAU pipeline stage is interpolating a next set of pel position values; and accumulating at least eight summation of ABSDIFF values for the 4×4 block at quarter-pel positions per a third HAU pipeline stage while the second HAU pipeline stage is computing a next set of at least eight ABSDIFF values, wherein results of accumulating are stored in a memory coupled to the HAU and separately coupled to the PE, wherein the issuing of the instruction includes broadcasting the instruction to at least two separate PEs to initiate the quarter-pel motion compensated search operation on two HAUs, wherein each HAU is separately coupled to a different PE of the at least two separate PEs.