A parallel CAVLC design for 4096×2160p encoder

This paper presents a high performance VLSI design of Context-Based Adaptive Variable Length-Coding (CAVLC) for 4096×2160p@60fps H.264/AVC encoder. A parallel architecture is proposed to make the scan and encode stage work simultaneously. Four coefficients are scanned in parallel, and four Levels and Run_before are coded in parallel. From experimental results, only 120 cycles at most are needed to process one macroblock (MB), which reduce more than 50% cycles compare to state-of-the-art designs. The hardware implementation results show that the proposed design achieves real-time encoding at 250 MHz and the hardware cost is about 32k gates.