Efficient software and hardware implementations of the H.264 entropy encoders

Part 10 of MPEG-4 describes the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) method widely known as H.264. H.264 is the product of a collaborative effort known as the Joint Video Team(JVT). The final draft of the standard was completed in May of 2003, and since then H.264 has become one of the most commonly used formats for compression of high definition video [9]. The entire H.264/AVC encoder is inherently a sequential process, which typically lends itself to a software solution. Within the H.264 Standard, two entropy decoders are discussed. These two lossless encoding methods are known as Context Adaptive Variable Length Coding (CAVLC) and Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC). CAVLC offers the most basic solution, while CABAC provides increased compression rates at a cost in algorithm complexity. For fast encoding of H.264 bit streams, three solutions are presented in this thesis. Two implementations of CAVLC are discussed, including a software and a hardware solution. Finally, a simple implementation of CABAC is proposed