Scalable Architecture for SoC Video Encoders

Evolving video coding standards demand functional flexibility for implementations, not only at design time but also after fabrication. This paper presents a System-on-Chip design approach with a feasible combination of performance, scalability, programmability, area efficiency, and design time effort for a video encoder. The encoder is based on a homogeneous master-slave processor architecture. Each slave encodes a part of the frame in the Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) data parallel model. Both shared and distributed memory architectures are presented. Design effort is reduced by identical program codes, automated assembly of software and hardware modules independent of the number and type of processors, as well as our flexible on-chip communication network called Heterogeneous IP Block Interconnection (HIBI). A case study implementation with two to ten simple ARM7 processors, 32-bit HIBI bus and non-optimized processor-independent software gives the performance from 6 to 53 fps for QCIF. The whole encoder area ranges from 173 to 770 kgates excluding the memories. The relation scales reasonably well to systems with more powerful processors and optimized code. The optimization of the communication network shows that with more than six slaves even a serial HIBI connection with 100 MHz speed is feasible. HIBI and the parallelization approach allow exploration and optimization of the communication both at the application and architecture layers. Tero Kangas, MSc ’01, Tampere University of Technology (TUT). Since 1999 he has been working as a research scientist in the Institute of Digital and Computer Systems (DCS) at TUT. Currently he is working towards his PhD degree and his main research topics are system architectures and SoC design methodologies in multimedia applications. Kimmo Kuusilinna, PhD ’01, TUT. His main research interests include system-level design and verification, interconnection networks, and parallel memories. Currently he is working as a senior research engineer at the Nokia Research Center. Timo D. H?m?l?inen, MSc ’93, PhD ’97, TUT. He acted as a senior research scientist and project manager at TUT in 1997-2001. He was nominated to full professor at TUT/Institute of Digital and Computer Systems in 2001. He heads the DACI research group that focuses on three main lines: wireless local area networking and wireless sensor networks, high-performance DSP/HW based video encoding, and interconnection networks with design flow tools for heterogeneous SoC platforms.     

A Video Streaming System for Mobile Phones: Practice and Experience

This paper presents a case of video streaming system for mobile phone which has actually been implemented and deployed for commercial services in CDMA2000 1X cellular phone networks. As the computing environment and the network connection of cellular phones are significantly different from the wired desktop environment, the traditional desktop streaming method is not applicable. Therefore, a new architecture is required to suit the successfully streaming in the mobile phone environment. We have developed a very lightweight video player for use in mobile phone and the related authoring tool for the player. The streaming server has carefully been designed to provide high efficiency, reliability and scalability. Based on a specifically-designed suite of streaming protocol, the server employs an adaptive rate control mechanism which transmits the media packets appropriately into the network according to the change in network bandwidth.Hojung Cha is currently a professor in computer science at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include multimedia computing system, multimedia communication networks, wireless and mobile communication systems and embedded system software. He received his B.S. and M.S. in computer engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1985 and 1987, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Manchester, England, in 1991.Jongmin Lee is a Ph.D. candidiate in computer science at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include wireless multimedia system, QoS architecture, multimedia communication networks. He received his B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Kwangwoon University in 1999 and 2001, respectively.Jongho Nang is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Sogang University. He received his B.S. degree from Sogang University, Korea, in 1986 and M.S. and Ph.D. degree from KAIST, in 1988 and in 1992, respectively. His research interests are in the field of multimedia systems, digital video library, and Internet technologies. He is a member of KISS, ACM, and IEEE.Sung-Yong Park is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. He received his B.S. degree in computer science from Sogang University, and both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Syracuse University. From 1987 to 1992, he worked for LG Electronics, Korea, as a research engineer. From 1998 to 1999, he was a research scientist at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore) where he developed network management software for optical switches. His research interests include high performance distributed computing and systems, operating systems, and multimedia.Jin-Hwan Jeong received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 1997, and 1999, respectively. He is currently in Ph.D. course at Korea University. His research interests include video processing for thin devices, multimedia streaming and operating systems.Chuck Yoo received the B.S. degree in electronics engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea and the M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science in University of Michigan. He worked as a researcher in Sun Microsystems Lab. from 1990 to 1995. He joined the Computer Science and Enginnering Department, Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 1995, where he is currently a professor. His research interests include high performance network, multimedia streaming, and operating systems.Jin-Young Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1982, the M.S. degree from Drexel University in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from University of Pennsylvania, in 1993. He is currently a professor of Computer Science and Engineering Department, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. His current research interests are in real-time computing, formal methods, programming languages, process algebras, security, software engineering, and protocol engineering.     

SIMD技术在数字图像处理中的应用研究

SIMD处理机特别适合于要求大量高速向量或矩阵计算的场合,数据缓存系统和对准网络是它的关键部件。而图像卷积是图像处理技术中最基本也是最重要的一项技术,本文根据数字图像的卷积定理对数字图像的卷积运算进行了分析,并提出了一种基于SIMD处理机的可变卷积模板的图像卷积处理器的体系结构。该处理器内部包含有接口部件、控制部件、数据缓存系统、对准电路和执行部件等。它的极高效率的数据缓存系统和对准电路成为该处理器最有特色的部分,它从根本上解决了图像卷积中的数据复用带来的CPU重复访问主存储器的问题。实现了卷积模板为3×3的图像卷积运算,从而实现了对卷积计算的硬件加速目的。最后,对这个图像卷积处理器体系结构的性能及其可扩展性进行了缜密的分析。     

Architecture Considerations for Multi-Format Programmable Video Processors

Many different video processor architectures exist. Its architecture gives a processor strength for a particular application. Hardwired logic yields the best performance/cost, but a programmable processor is important for applications that support multiple coding standards, proprietary functions, or future changes to application requirements. Programmable video processor architectures achieve best performance through the use of parallelism at the data (SIMD), instruction (VLIW), and multiprocessor level, and optimally sized ALU, multiplier, and load/store datapaths. Because low-cost memory architectures are not optimized for the random access patterns of video processing, the performance of video processors is often limited by memory bandwidth rather than processing resources. Careful data organization alleviates memory bandwidth limitations. When choosing a video processor it is important to consider many factors, particularly performance, cost, power consumption, programmability, and peripheral support.

对车载无线视频监控系统的分析

本文阐述了无线车载视频监控系统的组成,并对GSM(GPRS、EDGE)、CDMA、卫星、3G、WiMAX和Wi-Fi等无线网络支持的无线车载视频监控的质量进行了分析.     

A Novel Reconfigurable Processor Using Dynamically Partitioned SIMD for Multimedia Applications

In this paper, we propose a novel reconfigurable processor using dynamically partitioned single‐instruction multiple‐data (DP‐SIMD) which is able to process multimedia data. The SIMD processor and parallel SIMD (P‐SIMD) processor, which is composed of a number of SIMD processors, are usually used these days. But these processors are inefficient because all processing units (PUs) should process the same operations all the time. Moreover, the PUs can process different operations only when every SIMD group operation is predefined. We propose a processor control method which can partition parallel processors into multiple SIMD‐based processors dynamically to enhance efficiency. For performance evaluation of the proposed method, we carried out the inverse transform, inverse quantization, and motion compensation operations of H.264 using processors based on SIMD, P‐SIMD, and DP‐SIMD. Experimental results show that the DP‐SIMD control method is more efficient than SIMD and P‐SIMD control methods by about 15% and 14%, respectively.     

基于CDN的可扩展多级视频网格结构研究

针对二级结构的视频网格缺乏可扩展性的缺点,提出利用客户端主机的冗余处理能力,将部分客户端主机当作加盟服务器使用,以降低区域服务器的工作负载.详细论述了多级视频网格体系结构的设计和各服务器的工作模式,以及当加盟服务器突然失效时点播服务的平稳迁移.通过视频网格模拟器VGSim的仿真结果表明,可扩展多级视频网格结构中,区域服务器的工作负载和网络带宽的占用被大大减轻,整个系统的服务能力被有效增强.     

Compressed Digital Video:Accelerating the Video Communications Revolution

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基于无线传输的移动视频监控系统的设计

介绍了一种基于3G无线网络传输的移动视频监控系统的设计和实现方法.首先分析了本视频监控系统的优点,并简单介绍了系统的总体设计,然后重点介绍了前端采集终端、传输部分和后端管理平台等部分的设计和实现方法,最后分析了测试效果和下一步研究重点.经3G网络测试,该监控系统工作稳定并已成功应用于视频监控领域.     

无线移动传感器网络自适应体系结构的设计

随着无线网络技术的日益成熟及其对小型、微型移动设备的支持，无线移动传感器网络已经逐渐成为一个研究的热点。主要讨论了为无线移动传感器网络设计的一个自适应的体系结构。在该体系结构中，使用了一个区域和核心路由节点相结合的多层结构的方法来增加无线移动网络的信息传输能力、可扩充性和可靠性，并降低网络的能耗，这样就可以适应无线移动网络的高度动态性和移动性。     

移动视频监控系统中的关键技术研究

针对移动设备有限的运算存储能力以及目前无线信道窄带高误码等问题,设计并实现了在移动环境下的实时视频监控系统。该系统融合了改进的高级Foveation滤波技术、自适应帧率调节、鲁棒的视频编码等技术。通过采用这些技术,以使有限的编码比特流合理分配,从而极大地提高监控系统的图像质量。同时,为了防止视频监控数据遭到恶意的攻击和篡改,系统集成了水印安全认证模块,保证了监控系统的安全性。     

图形处理器协同运算的视频处理架构

多媒体视频处理的任务繁重,计算量大,很多算法无法在仅使用一颗CPU的条件下达到实时处理的速度。设计一套图形处理器协同运算的视频处理架构,它采用图形处理器与中央处理器配合,共同完成视频计算的任务。这种架构可以大大加速处理速度,并减轻中央处理器的负担。     

H.264网络视频编码优化技术研究

在CDMA1x无线视频传输系统的基础上,使用Intel SSE2技术对H.264编码中的SATD(SAD)计算、亚像素内插、整数变换和量化等复杂耗时模块进行了优化,使编码器的编码速度得到显著提高.     

Video Object Extraction for Object-Oriented Applications

In this paper, we propose two novel video object (VO) extraction schemes, specifically designed for two different scenarios of content-based video analysis applications. One is a change detection-based VO extraction algorithm appropriate to surveillance type video sequences, where automatic detection of new appearance of objects are important in envisaging on-line object-oriented applications as well as object-based coding. The other is an object tracking-based method, which is especially robust to video sequences with moving background, although human intervention is needed in the process. In both cases, the semantically meaningful video objects are obtained by a final regularization stage realized by means of a cascade of morphological filters. Experimental results obtained on the MPEG-4 test sequences are presented respectively.     

民航机场无线宽带移动视频监控与联动调度系统的设计与应用

作为民航机场安全管理重要组成部分的传统数字视频监控系统普遍基于有线网络,摄像机与监控人员的位置固定,易存在监控死角与盲区,缺乏灵活性与可扩展性,尤其无法满足突发与应急状态下的联动调度应用。本文依托在桂林两江国际机场建设的无线宽带接入网络,结合桂林机场的运营指挥业务特点,设计实现了一套无线宽带移动视频联动调度系统（VDSS）。该系统无缝整合无线移动视频与原有固定视频监控系统,并初步实现了与语音对讲系统与数字指令调度系统的对接,为民航机场指挥调度提供了移动视频监控与联动调度的可靠技术平台。     

一个可切实服务于运营商的移动无线因特网

本文在简单介绍了移动IP及其路由优化,无线局域网（WLAN）和GPRS的基础上,提出了一个新的利用移动IP来融合WLAN和GPRS的移动无线因特网的网络结构,详细论述了其多连接的路由过程,平滑垂直切换,AAA,并做了简要的性能分析。     

与视频编码标准结合的视频转码技术专利分析

由于视频编码标准的不同而产生的不同种类视频转码技术是视频转码中的重要部分,本文通过检索与MPEG-2、MPEG-4、H.263、H.264标准相结合的在中国申请的视频转码技术专利,分析了各标准下国内外申请人的地区分布情况和申请量变化趋势,并对统计结果做了分析.     

在线视频教育系统中会议系统语音架构的优化

随着互联网技术与视频会议技术不断深入的发展,视频会议正在以全新的面貌给人们带来方便、简洁、高效、真实的沟通体验,当前基于Web的视频会议已经成为炙手可热的研究热点。基于在线教育系统项目中开源Web视频会议系统Bigbluebutton的语音架构,针对该系统语音处理的效率比较低的问题提出了一个新的语音架构优化方案,使参与会议的所有听众只占用一个语音发布流通道,从而大幅降低会议系统的语音通道数量,降低视频会议系统对资源的消耗。同时给出了该方案的实现细节。     

基于ARM的移动视频监控系统

将嵌入式Linux和无线网络引入到视频监控系统,阐述了系统的硬件组成;介绍了USB无线网卡驱动实现的过程;从嵌入式Linux开发环境的搭建、嵌入式流媒体服务器的设计和动态网页的设计等方面介绍了软件系统的具体实现过程;对动态网页设计所涉及到的双缓冲技术进行了详细介绍。实现结果表明,该系统具有可靠性高、体积小、成本低和使用便利等特点,适用于移动视频监控等实际场合。     

Platform-Based MPEG-4 SOC Design for Video Communications

An MPEG-4 video coding SOC design is presented in this paper. We adopt platform-based architecture with an embedded RISC core and efficient memory organization. A motion estimator supporting predictive diamond search and spiral full search is implemented for compromise between compression performance and design cost. The proposed data reuse scheme reduces required memory access bandwidth. For texture coding path, an interleaving DCT/IDCT scheduling with substructure sharing technique is proposed. Several key modules are integrated into an efficient platform in hardware/software co-design fashion. The cost-efficient video encoder SOC consumes 256.8 mW at 40 MHz and achieves real-time encoding of 30 CIF (352×288) frames per second. Yung-Chi Chang was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1975. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1998 and 2000, respectively, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in the Graduate Institute of Electrical Engineering. His research interests include video coding algorithms and VLSI architectures for image/video processing. Wei-Min Chao was born in Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1977. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Electronics Engineering, National Taiwan University in 2000 and 2002 separately. His research interests include video coding algorithms and VLSI architecture for image and video processing. Chih-Wei Hsu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1979. He received the B.S.E.E and M.S.E.E degrees from National Taiwan University (NTU), Taipei, in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He joined MediaTek, Inc., Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2003, where he develops integrated circuits related to multimedia systems and optical storage devices. His research interests include object tracking, video coding, baseband signal processing, and VLSI design. Liang-Gee Chen was born in Yun-Lin, Taiwan, in 1956. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 1979, 1981, and 1986, respectively. He was an Instructor (1981-1986), and an Associate Professor (1986-1988) in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University. In the military service during 1987 to 1988, he was an Associate Professor in the Institute of Resource Management, Defense Management College. In 1988, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University. During 1993 to 1994 he was a Visiting Consultant of DSP Research Department, AT & T Bell Lab, Murray Hill. In 1997, he was a visiting scholar of the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle. During 2001 to 2004, he was the first director of the Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering (GIEE) in National Taiwan University (NTU). Currently, he is a Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and GIEE in NTU, Taipei, Taiwan. He is also the director of the Electronics Research and Service Organization in Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan. His current research interests are DSP architecture design, video processor design, and video coding systems. Dr. Chen has served as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology since 1996, as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems since 1999, and as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II since 2000. He has been the Associate Editor of the Journal of Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing since 1999, and a Guest Editor for the Journal of Video Signal Processing Systems. He is also the Associate Editor of the Proceedings of the IEEE. He was the General Chairman of the 7th VLSI Design/CAD Symposium in 1995 and of the 1999 IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems: Design and Implementation. He is the Past-Chair of Taipei Chapter of IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society, and is a member of the IEEE CAS Technical Committee of VLSI Systems and Applications, the Technical Committee of Visual Signal Processing and Communications, and the IEEE Signal Processing Technical Committee of Design and Implementation of SP Systems. He is the Chair-Elect of the IEEE CAS Technical Committee on Multimedia Systems and Applications. During 2001--2002, he served as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE CAS Society. He received the Best Paper Award from the R.O.C. Computer Society in 1990 and 1994. Annually from 1991 to 1999, he received Long-Term (Acer) Paper Awards. In 1992, he received the Best Paper Award of the 1992 Asia-Pacific Conference on circuits and systems in the VLSI design track. In 1993, he received the Annual Paper Award of the Chinese Engineer Society. In 1996 and 2000, he received the Outstanding Research Award from the National Science Council, and in 2000, the Dragon Excellence Award from Acer. He is a member of Phi Tan Phi.