Embedded compression algorithm using error-aware quantization and hybrid DPCM/BTC coding

An embedded compression (EC) is a technique that can compress on-the-fly the frame data when stored in video memory; it has been used to effectively reduce the system memory requirements. In this paper, we propose a lossy EC algorithm that uses hybrid coding scheme of feedforward DPCM and modified four-level BTC, which aims at the target specification of the 4 × 2 block-wise random access at 50 % compression ratio. The algorithmic characteristics of the proposed algorithm are twofold: the first is the error-aware quantization scheme to definitely reduce the total error in a block and the last is the hybrid DPCM/BTC coding scheme to effectively handle various texture patterns that can occur in a block. The architectural advantage stems from the feedforward DPCM that breaks off the inherent dependency between the prediction and quantization present in the conventional DPCM, which helps reduce the implementation burden as well as speed up the overall processing. Comparative evaluation shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing ones by 0.77–6.39 dB.