Intra Prediction for the Hardware H.264/AVC High Profile Encoder

The hardware implementation of the intra prediction described in this paper allows the H.264/AVC encoder to achieve optimal compression efficiency in real-time conditions. The architecture has some features that distinguish it from other solutions described in literature. Firstly, the architecture supports all intra prediction modes defined in High Profile of the H.264/AVC standard for all chroma formats. Secondly, the architecture can generate predictions for several quantization parameters. Thirdly, the hardware cost is reduced as the same resources are used to compute prediction samples for all the modes. Fourthly, the high sample-generation rate enables the encoder to achieve high throughputs. Fifthly, 4 × 4 block reordering and interleaving with other modes minimize the impact of the long-delay reconstruction loop on the encoder throughput. The architecture is verified against the JM.12 reference model and within the real-time FPGA hardware encoder. The synthesis results show that the design can operate at 100 MHz and 200 MHz for FPGA Aria II and 0.13 μm TSMC technology, respectively. These frequencies allow the encoder to support 720p and 1080p video at 30 fps.