Reuseable interface in multimedia hardware environment

DSP and particularly multimedia systems are among the most rapidly developing areas of digital IC (Integrated Circuit) design. Multimedia hardware designers face the same time-to-market problems as the rest of the IC designers but, in addition, a large number of data transfers is required. In this paper we utilize a novel IP (Intellectual Property) interface solution based on our Heterogeneous IP-Block Interconnection (HIBI) scheme. The purpose of this scheme is to simplify design reuse in multimedia system development by acting as an efficient interconnection between heterogeneous IP-blocks. As an example, a multimedia hardware environment based on the HIBI scheme is presented. This paper shows how designing the environment out of reuseable blocks complying with the HIBI scheme is straightforward, and the result is still flexible and efficient. The performance metrics of the environment are studied with the aid of a video encoder example. With the encoder, real-time operation for QCIF (Quarter Common Intermediate Format) video can be achieved.