Patent ID: 7756347

Claim:
A video decoding method employing a plurality of processing elements (PEs) comprising: accessing under control of each PE a plurality of macroblocks comprising a reference video frame; decoding in a first stage a first portion of the plurality of macroblocks having an associated coding type indicating that the first portion includes all intra coded macroblocks of the reference video frame, wherein each PE decodes an intra coded macroblock; decoding texture in a second stage a second portion of the plurality of macroblocks, the second portion of the plurality of macroblocks having an associated coding type indicating that the second portion are inter coded macroblocks of the reference video frame, wherein each PE decodes a subcomponent of an inter coded macroblock; and performing motion compensation and frame reconstruction in a third stage for the second portion of the plurality of macroblocks of the reference video frame, wherein each PE performs motion compensation on a subcomponent of an inter coded macroblock and wherein each stage is executed for all macroblocks of data in the reference video frame based on the associated coding type of the macroblocks, before the execution of the next stage.