Abstract
A novel and highly efficient algorithm of multiplication-free binary arithmetic coding is proposed. Our proposed method relies on simple table lookups for performing the computationally critical operations of interval subdivi-sion and probability estimation. Moreover, the underlying design principle provides a great flexibility for serving the different needs of all kind of coding applications where binary or binarized data have to be processed. A binary arithmetic coder of the type described in this pa-per has become part of the CABAC entropy coding scheme of the emerging H.264/AVC video coding stan-dard. Experiments using this binary arithmetic coder in its native video coding environment demonstrate a supe-rior coding efficiency as well as a significantly higher throughput rate in comparison to the MQ coder, which is currently being considered state-of-the-art in fast binary arithmetic coding.