A MIMD-based video signal processing architecture suitable for large area integration and a 16.6-cm/sup 2/ monolithic implementation

Abstract

The architecture and implementation of a programmable video signal processor dedicated as building block of a multiple instruction multiple data (MIMD)-based bus-connected multiprocessor system is presented. This system can either be constructed from several single processor chips, or it can be integrated on a large area integrated circuit containing several processors. The processor allows an efficient implementation of different video coding standards like H.261, H.263, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. It consists of a RISC processor supplemented by a coprocessor for computation intensive convolution-like tasks, which provides a peak performance of more than 1 giga-arithmetic operations per second (GOPS). A large area integrated circuit integrating 9 processor elements (PE's) on an area of 16.6 cm/sup 2/ has been designed. Due to yield considerations redundancy concepts have been implemented, that-even in the presence of production defects-result in working chips utilizing a lower number of PE's. Each PE has built-in self-test (BIST) capabilities, which allow for an independent test of itself under the control of its integrated fault-tolerant BIST controller. Defective PE's are switched off. Only the PE's passing the BIST are used for video processing tasks. Prototypes have been fabricated in a 0.8 /spl mu/m complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process structured by masks using wafer stepping with overlapping exposures. Employing redundancy, up to 6 PE's per chip were functional at 66 MHz, thus providing a peak arithmetic performance of up to 6 GOPS.