An on-chip, 64-Mb, embedded, DRAM MPEG-2 encoder LSI with a multimedia processor has been developed. To implement this large-scale and high-speed LSI, we have developed the hierarchical skew control of multi-clocks, with timing verification, in which cross-talk noise is considered, and simple measures taken against the IR drop in the power lines through decoupling capacitors. As a result, the target performance of 263 MHz at 1.5 V has been successfully attained and verified, the cross-talk noise has been considered, and, in addition, it has become possible to restrain the IR drop to 166 mV in the 162 MHz operation block.

A chip is described that integrates two multimedia VLIW processor cores with a hardware streaming engine. It can implement a real-time videophone, or an MPEG4 codec. Each processor core has identical resources, and shares the memory and system I/O interface units. With its symmetric structure, applications can be executed on either processor without constraints. To accelerate multimedia-specific applications, the architecture of this processor has several features. It merges the features of a RISC and a DSP, its instruction set is extended to accelerate both video and audio applications, and it supports an efficient embedded memory system, to reduce both the bandwidth and the latency for multimedia applications needing frequent memory accesses. The chip size will be 100 mm2 die that contains 700 K logic gates, 60 KB RAM, and 16 KB ROM, in a 0.25-µm CMOS standard cell technology. At 65 MHz operating frequency, it can process H.263 video coding at CIF 15 frames/sec, and G.723.1 audio coding with an 80% processing time allocation.

An architectural design of a media processor core optimized for MPEG4/H26x video codec targeted for use in mobile multimedia terminals is presented. The architecture consists of a maximum 6.4 GOPS SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) processor, RISC-processor, VLC-processor, and intelligent DMA controller. The unique SIMD processor completes 2-D DCT processing in 132 clock cycles, or block matching (16 by 16 pixels) in 24 clock-cycles. VLC-processor allows the completion of 8 by 8 block run-level coding in average 10 clock cycles in the case of low bit-rates. The functions of transpose-registers in the SIMD processor, data sub-sampling technique in the DMA, or data-sliding technique between PEs (Processor Elements) in the SIMD processor eliminate a large amount of cycle loss for data handling, and extract the highest level of performance. Through the use of the above architecture and the lower power approach, CIF 30 frames/s MPEG4 Simple Profile video codec @ 100 MHz can be achieved. Estimated dissipation is as low as 280 mW. 300 kgates and 16 kBytes four port SRAM are contained on a 12 mm2 area by using 0.18 µm process technology. The combination of the RISC-processor and SIMD-processor can also operate MPEG4 core profile (shape coding) that requires flexibility and performance.

In this paper, we introduce a processor called Media Core Processor (MCP), which targets a system solution for consumer multimedia products. MCP is a heterogeneous multi-processor system designed to guarantee full frame MPEG decoding, and to reduce power consumption. In our processor architecture, each processing unit is optimized to support various characteristics of media processing. All processing units work in parallel in a macro-pipeline manner, thereby achieving high utilization of the processing units. A performance evaluation shows that audio/video full-frame decoding can be realized on 54 MHz operating frequency without any support from external hardware or a CPU. In addition, the high programmability of the MCP provides flexibility and reduces the time-to-market.

This paper describes low-power architecture-methodologies for programmable multimedia processors, which will become major functional units in System-On-a-Chip. After brief review on multimedia processing and low-power considerations, recent programmable chips, including MPUs and DSPs, are investigated in terms of low-power implementation. In order to show the difference of the low-power approaches between programmable processors and ASIC processors, a single-chip MPEG-2 encoder is also included as an example of ASIC design.

Integrating a 243 MHz dual-issue RISC processor core with a small set of dedicated hardware can create a single chip system for real-time encoding and decoding for MPEG2 MP@ML (main profile at main level). A trade-off between software and dedicated hardware is very important to decide performance of the system. This paper evaluates several MPEG2 encoding and decoding systems, focusing on both chip area and power consumption. For MPEG2 encoding, a newly introduced hybrid approach includes the processor core and the dedicated hardware that performs the discrete cosine transform (DCT), the inverse DCT (IDCT), variable length encoding (VLC) and block loading process. The estimated area for the encoder, 23. 0 mm2 using a 0. 3-micrometer 1-poly 4-metal CMOS process, is 33% smaller than that of the dedicated hardware approach. The estimated power consumption for the encoder is 13% smaller than that of the dedicated hardware approach. The dual-issue RISC processor approach has the advantage of a small chip area, low power consumption and that of being very easy to program for multimedia applications.

Media processors have emerged so that a single LSI can realize multiple multimedia functions, such as graphics, video, audio and telecommunication with effectively shared hardware and flexible software. First, the difference between media processors and general-purpose microprocessors with multimedia extensions is clarified. Features for processes and data in the multimedia applications are summarized and are followed by the multimedia enhancements that the recent general-purpose microprocessors use. The architecture for media processors reflects the further optimized utilization of these features and realizes better price-performance ratio than the general-purpose microprocessors. Finally, the future directions of media processors are estimated, based on the performance, the power dissipation and the die size of the present microprocessors with multimedia extensions and the present media processors. The demand to improve the price-performance ratio for the whole system and to reduce the power consumption makes the media processor evolve into a system processor, which integrates not only the media processor but also the function of a general-purpose microprocessor, various interfaces and DRAMs.

A dual-issue VLIW processor, running at 250 MHz, is enhanced with multimedia instructions for a sustained peak performance of 1000MOPS. The multimedia processor integrates 300 K transistors in an 8 mm2 core area and it is fabricated onto a 6 mm6. 2 mm chip with 32 kB instruction and 32 kB data RAMs in a 0. 3-micrometer, four-layer metal CMOS process. It consumes 1. 2 W at 2. 0 V running at 250 MHz. The VLIW processor achieves a speed-up of more than 4 times over a single-issue RISC for MPEG video block decoding. A decoder implemented on the multimedia processor with a small amount of dedicated hardware, such as the Huffman decoder and a DMA controller will decode the worst case 88 video block data in 754 cycles, leading to a real-time MPEG-2 system, video, and audio decoding system.