A JPEG code generator utility

Includes bibliographical references (leaf [59])This thesis presents the development process and implementation procedure for an assembly language code generator utility. This utility can be used to generate assembly language programs for implementing the Joint Photographic Expert Group’s (JPEG) proposed image compression standard on a digital signal processor (DSP) based system. The output is assembly language programs which can directly execute on a signal processor without additional coding or modification. The code generator supports the Baseline System of the JPEG image compression standard. Image data compression can be used to reduce channel bandwidth requirements when transmitting still or moving images over a band-limited channel. It also enables images to be stored in a relatively smaller memory space. JPEG is an international standard which specifies processes for converting source image data to compressed image data as well as converting compressed image data to reconstructed image data. Writing efficient hardware-dependent software is a time-consuming and tedious task. A 'C' compiler can be used to compile the C source code into assembly programs, but the output of the C compiler often contains redundant instructions. It is the intent of the code generator to produce efficient compact assembly level programs with minimum redundancy. Until now, image compression techniques have been available only through customized hardware or through software which directly implements the compression, primarily on personal computers. This code generator makes available to the user the assembly code for image compression on a DSP(TMS320C30) based system and provides 'C' code for image compression implementation on any platform with C compilers. Providing this capability to the user at the computer interface will reduce the time required in rewriting code for JPEG image compression standard implementation for different images or parameters.M.S. (Master of Science