1 chip low power MPEG1 codec with compact motion estimation

We have developed a low power MPEG1/JPEG encode/decode single chip LSI (codec). On the development of the codec, we have developed a new compact motion estimation (ME) process which reduced the number of gates and the power consumption to about a quarter and 1/8 of those of the conventional ME process respectively, while keeping good quality of picture. With the new ME process and power management function all over the codec chip, we realized the low power consumption of the codec. Total power consumption of the codec is only 500 mW. With this chip, we have also realized the first digital camera with an MPEG1 stream in the world.