High-level architecture exploration for MPEG4 encoder with custom parameters

This paper proposes the use of a high-level architecture exploration method for different MPEG4 video encoders using different customization parameters. The targeted architecture is a heterogeneous MP-SoC which may include up 2 coarse grain SIMD (task level SIMD) subsystems to perform the computations. The customization parameters are related to video resolution, frame rate, communication network, level of parallelism and CPU types. These parameters are determined during the high-level architecture exploration, by estimating the architecture performances at early stages of the design flow. Experiments shows that the error factor of these high-level performances estimations are less than 10% compared to those obtained with final manually implemented RTL architecture. This method was used successfully for exploration of different MPEG4 architecture configurations with different customization parameters. We consider these experiments a breakthrough because they show how a complex design can be mastered through a set of pragmatic choices.