Patent ID: RE41179

Claim:
In a computer system having a processor executing at least one application program and a video decoder decoding a video data for display, an extraction circuit for extracting from the video data a plurality of header data each associated with one of a plurality of starting code types, the extraction circuit comprising: a starting code detector receiving the video data, and operable to detect a starting code contained in the video data while the processor is executing the application program and operable to prevent an interrupt from being passed to the processor when a starting code is detected; a branch circuit having an input connected to the starting code detector, and operable to branch the header data associated with the detected starting code type, and a plurality of register units connected to the branch circuit for receiving the branched header data , each register unit being associated with one of the plurality of starting code types and each operable to store the header data associated with the register unit ; wherein the branch circuit includes means for recognizing the occurrence of quantization tables in the video data and for branching the data relative to these tables to a circuit for restoring quantization arrays, wherein the branch circuit is associated with a calculator for converting the header , data prior to their storage in one of the register units, into instructions directly interpretable by a video decoder and accessible in any order by a microprocessor; and wherein the starting code detector generates an interrupt for the processor when all header data are stored in the plurality of register units.