An MPEG-4 Video Codec SOC for Mobile Multimedia Applications

Mobile multimedia is foreseen as one of the major applications for the upcoming broadband mobile networks like UMTS. Besides pure streaming applications for uni-directional communication, bi-directional applications like video teleconferencing and multimedia messaging will become increasingly popular. The paper aims to provide an overview about the implementation of an ASIC suited for mobile multimedia applications. The ASIC features a complete single chip solution for MPEG-4 video coding and decoding, using picture resolutions of up to QCIF @ 15 fps and data rates up to 128 kbit/s based on several hardware acceleration components and an embedded processor. After an introduction of the incorporated MPEG-4 video standard and the targeted applications of the ASIC, the paper gives a overview of the structure of the encoder and the decoder.