High Performance VLSI Design of Diamond Search Algorithm for Fast Motion Estimation

Abstract

Motion estimation (ME) accounts for the major part of computational complexity of any video coding standard. The diamond search (DS) algorithm is widely used as a fast search technique to perform motion estimation. In this paper, a novel architecture for the diamond search technique is proposed that efficiently handles memory addressing and reduces hardware complexity. The proposed architecture meets the speed requirements for real-time video processing without compromising the area. The design when implemented in Verilog HDL on Virtex-5 technology and synthesized using Xilinx ISE Design Suite 12.4, gives rise to a critical path delay of 3.25 ns and the equivalent area is calculated to be 3.5[Formula: see text]K gate equivalent. Working at a frequency of 308 MHz, the proposed design can process 128 CIF frames per second. So, the proposed architecture can be incorporated in a video codec targeted for commercial devices like smart-phones, camcorders and video conferencing system.