Patent ID: 8817886

Claim:
A decoding device, comprising: a memory configured to store a toolbox that includes a plurality of functional units which independently perform a predetermined decoding process and which are distinguished by CSCI (Control Signal and Context Information) control information and connection control information, wherein the toolbox includes sub-toolboxes which are sets of functional units formed based on the application standard field, and the functional units performing a same function with a different performance method are bound up into one group; a decoder description storing memory configured to store a decoder description that is divided into partial decoder descriptions; and a connection controller configured to: receive, from a decoder forming device, the CSCI control information and the connection control information in a CSCI storage memory and a connection controller, respectively, use the stored partial decoder descriptions to control more than one functional unit of the plurality of functional units to be selectively loaded from the toolbox by using the connection control information received from the decoder forming unit, and control a bitstream to be decoded as a video datum via the more than one functional unit selectively loaded from the toolbox and connected together via the connection control information and the CSCI control information, wherein the decoder forming device is configured to: determine that at least one function unit in the plurality of functional units is not included in the toolbox, and automatically update the toolbox to include at least one new functional unit to replace the at least one functional unit not included in the toolbox, wherein the identification information of each functional unit includes a combination of the application standard field and each of: a list field (LIST) specifying a plurality of application standards, a role field (ROLE) according to a function distinction, a name field (NAME) corresponding to a functional unit algorithm, a property field (PROPERTY) indicating a functional unit property or information related to a process, a size field (SIZE) indicating a size of a block to be processed by a functional unit, and an implementation field (IMPLEMENTATION) indicating additional information related to a functional unit performance, wherein the partial decoder descriptions stored at the description storing memory include at least one of: a functional unit list (FL), a functional unit rule table (F-RT), a functional unit CSCIT (FU-CSCIT), a control signal and context information table (CSCIT), a syntax element table (SET), a syntax-rule table (S-RT), and a default value table (DVT), wherein at least one of the CSCIT, the SET, the S-RT, and the DVT is used to generate the CSCI control information, and wherein at least one of the FL, F-RT, the FU-CSCIT, the S-RT, and the DVT is used to generate the connection control information.