Real-time VLSI architecture for a VQ-based high-quality image coding algorithm

A real-time vector quantizer (VQ) architecture for broadcast quality encoding of color TV images is presented. The architecture maps the mean/quantized residual vector quantizer (MQRVQ), an extension of mean/residual VQ, onto a VLSI/LSI chip set. The MQRVQ contributes to the feasibility of the VLSI architecture through the use of a simple multiplication-free distortion measure and reduction of the required memory per codevector. In other words, the complexity-reduced MQRVQ allows each subcodebook of 128 codevectors (10 kb) and its associated encoding elements to be fitted onto a VLSI chip. This architecture reduces encoding search complexity through partitioning of a large codebook into on-chip memories of a concurrent VLSI chip set. There are 64 of these VLSI chips to accommodate a codebook with size up to 2¹³=8192 codevectors. The architecture is capable of real-time processing of 480×768 pixels per frame with refreshing rate of 30 frames/second