VLSI video processing elements for real time applications

In this paper, architectural, circuital and technological solutions for the implementation of key elements in real-time video processing systems are presented. Spatial transforms and motion estimation are identified as the most critical elements in terms of computational cost, power dissipation and area overhead. In order to support real time applications, effective implementations of these blocks are highly recommended, and for this task, gallium arsenide arises as a good candidate due to its inherent characteristics. Layout and simulation results for a 250 MHz multiplierless filter bank for applications on two dimensional discrete wavelet transform (2D-DWT) and for a 270 MHz full-search block matching algorithm (FBMA) for motion estimation are presented as part of a high performance video processing system.