A new implementation of generalized order statistic filter by threshold decomposition

The order statistic (OS) filter of M-level signals has three stages: thresholding, binary filtering, and reconstruction. For binary filtering, the authors use a pipelined sorting network instead of positive Boolean functions, which are very complex for a generalized OS filter. They also develop a fast reconstructor with (2M-2-log/sub 2/M) half adders. Both the computation time and latency time are just four times that of one gate delay. The design is also suitable for VLSI cellular array implementation.<>