A multi-standard micro-programmable deblocking filter architecture and its application to VC-1 video decoder

In order to overcome the loss in blocking artifacts due to block-based prediction, transformation, and quantization, a de-blocking filtering method is necessary to maximize coding performance and consequently improve image quality. This paper describes a programmable VC-1 de-blocking filter architecture with capabilities to support different standards. The architecture has been modeled, simulated and implemented in RTL. Results show a threefold performance improvement as compared to solutions where filtering algorithms are otherwise not hardwired. Results also point to parallelism based on existing data flow and show that real-time requirements can be met.