VLSI architecture for motion vector quantization

The paper present a novel VLSI architecture for block-matching operations based on motion vector quantizers (MVQs). Since the distribution of the MVQ check point locations is irregular, the usual VLSI architectures for regular block-matching processes may not be effective for the hardware implementation of the MVQ. Our architecture solves this problem by adopting a scheme capable of performing both sequential and parallel block-matching processes. For check points having close locations, their block-matching processes are performed sequentially to reduce both the I/O rate and the clock cycle. On the other hand, we perform the parallel block-matching processes for checkpoints which are widely separated so that the clock cycle can be reduced while retaining the I/O rate. Because of the flexibility for sequential and parallel selection, our architecture requires less clock cycle and I/O rate for the MVQ hardware implementation as compared with other existing architectures.