H.264/AVC hardware encoders and low-power features

Because of significant bit rate reduction in comparison to the previous video compression standards, the H.264/AVC has been successfully used in a wide range of applications. In hardware design for H.264/AVC video encoders, power reduction is currently a tremendous challenge. This paper presents a survey of different H.264/AVC hardware encoders focusing on power features and power reduction techniques to be applied. A new H.264/AVC hardware encoder, named VENGME, is proposed. This low power encoder is a four-stage architecture with memory access reduction, in which, each module has been optimized. The actual total power consumption, estimated at RTL level, is 19.1mW.