A multi-bit binary arithmetic coding technique

We propose a new methodology for binary arithmetic coding which reduces the number of arithmetic operations significantly at the expense of a mild reduction in compression ratio. We achieve this by (i) considering a two-symbol nonoverlapping window and not coding the second symbol if both of them are most probable symbols and (ii) moving the majority of computations to the least probable symbol path. As a result, we reduce the additions/subtractions required by 60-70%, with a loss of compression ratio of about 1-3% compared to the Q-coder. This reduction in computational complexity makes the proposed technique particularly suitable for low-power VLSI implementation. We have described the proposed algorithm and analyzed the results. We have also described a VLSI architecture capable of carrying out the algorithm.