An area efficient hardware sharing filter generator suitable for multiple video format conversions

A software program which automatically generates area-efficient circuits for multiple video format conversion filters by using new hardware sharing technique has been developed. The circuits employing this new technique share most of hardware between all filters by utilizing the feature that these filters never operate at the same time. Its performance has been demonstrated by applying the technique to an LSI which converts formats such as NTSC and SDTV for plural types of HDTV monitor. The number of gates for all filters in this chip was decreased from 99,053 to 23,833 by the software program. As a result, all the hardware was successfully integrated into a single chip.