Processor architectures for multimedia applications

Abstract

An overview on processor architectures for multimedia applications is presented. Emphasis is on architectural strategies to achieve the required processing power of real-time applications. Architectural approaches for exploitation of the inherent parallelization resources of signal processing schemes are first discussed. The impact of algorithm on the appropriate architectures is displayed for three representative multimedia applications. The discussed applications are block-based video coding as used in MPEG-2, multiplexing for video broadcasing based on OFDM and object oriented video coding according to MPEG-4. Characteristic processor architectures adapted to the needs of these applications are introduced. Architectural structures of the AxPe-DSP, the HiPAR-DSP and a MPEG-4 system are presented as examples. Advances in multimedia processing require processors with high flexibilty on parallel processing and dynamic adaptation capabilties. As promising architectural concepts for advanced multimedia applications reconfigurable computing, simultaneous multithreading, and associative controlling are discussed.