Implementation of H.264/AVC encoder on coarse-grained dynamically reconfigurable computing system

REMUS is a coarse-grained dynamically reconfigurable computing system proposed for multimedia and communication baseband processing applications. H.264/AVC is the latest video coding standard which achieves dominant coding efficiency compared with previous standards. However, its high computational complexity and huge memory access bandwidth make it difficult to implement by traditional processors. Therefore, the multi-processing and multi-threading encoding systems are promising solutions for implementation of H.264/AVC codec in real-time applications. The paper presents architecture of the REMUS system for mobile applications (REMUS-MB), and shows that it is possible to implement a high complexity application as H.264/AVC encoding algorithm with competitive performance on the platform of REMUS-MB system. Experimental results have proven that the REMUS-MB system which operating at 200 MHz can perform H.264/AVC baseline profile encoder at real-time speed for CIF@30fps video sequences with two reference frames and maximum search range of [-16,15]. The implementation, therefore, can apply to handheld devices targeting at mobile multimedia applications such as video recorder, video telephony, video conference, etc. The platform of REMUS-MB system was designed and synthesized by using TSMC 65nm low power technology. The die size of REMUS-MB is 13.97 mm
²
. REMUS-MB consumes, on average, about 100mW while working at 200MHz.