Fractional-pel motion compensation interpolation architecture based on parallel FIR systolic arrays for H.264/AVC

A new architecture based on parallel FIR systolic arrays for motion compensation interpolation in H.264/AVC is presented in this paper. Unlike other interpolation architectures based on traditional adder tree or one systolic FIR, this design has advantages of both the pipeline property of systolic FIR filter and high parallel property. It has following characteristics: First, it uses several strategies to reduce the number of memory access. For example, the design fully uses the recursive relation between the fractional-pel samples, the appropriate interpolation orders for different situations are adopted, and two buffers are designed for storing immediate values. Second, it can increase the system clock frequency by using the systolic FIR filter to replace the traditional adder tree. Third, it can enhance the interpolation throughput by generating four fractional-pel samples in parallel. Fourth, it doesnpsilat need high memory bandwidth and can work under different bus-width by changing the number of systolic FIR filters. The design is synthesized with synopsys design compiler by using TSMC 0.18 um standard cell CMOS technology. The synthesis result shows that this architecture can achieve 230 MHz and meet the need for interpolation of the H.264 decoder for SDTV or HDTV.