A sub-mW H.264 baseline-profile motion estimation processor core with a VLSI-oriented block partitioning strategy and SIMD/systolic-array architecture

We propose a sub-mW H.264 baseline-profile motion estimation processor for portable video applications. It features a VLSI-oriented block partitioning strategy and low-power SIMD/systolic-array datapath architecture, where the datapath can be switched between an SIMD and systolic array depending on processing flow. The processor supports all the seven kinds of block modes, and can handle three reference frames for a CIF (352 × 288) 30-fps to QCIF (176 × 144) 15-fps sequences with a quarter-pixel accuracy. It integrates 3.3 million transistors, and occupies 2.8×3.1 mm2 in a 130-nm CMOS technology. The proposed processor achieves a power of 800 μW in a QCIF 15-fps sequence with one reference picture.