Applications: Video | Audio | Voice | Image | IDE

Video Coding
SEDA Solutions'® in-depth knowledge and expertise in video coding gathered through years of following the standard body as well as implementation of the MPEG-4 video codec allows SEDA to confidently support its clients in their programs for developing systems or sub-systems based on video standards Such as MPEG-4 and/or H.264.

SEDA Solutions® provides design and implementation services with particular attention to software/hardware partitioning, complexity reductions and fixed-point implementations for various video standards. SEDA Solutions® customizes and optimizes encoder and decoder algorithms to work on any targeted processor platform. In addition, SEDA also provides support for integrating the encoder or decoder with the end-user system. SEDA Solutions'® approach is not just to depend on hardware resources but also to enhance the quality and simultaneously decrease the computational complexity through algorithmic modifications and carefully chosen design approaches. The end goal and result is a final product which is easily distinguishable by a large performance margin from that of its competitors.

SEDA Solutions® has identified and defined the Software/Hardware partitioning for a variety of MPEG-4 and H.264 video applications ranging from mobile telephony to high definition broadcasting. The functionality of these modules is defined in a high-level environment, using C/C++ simulation and related documentation. These specifications are now available for designing co-processors or hardware accelerators. SEDA Solutions'® list of hardware accelerators or coprocessor modules is comprised of the following:

  • RGB to YUV Conversion
  • YUV to RGB Conversion
  • Motion Estimation
  • DCT / IDCT
  • 4x4 bock transform
  • Quantizer
  • Inverse Quantizer
  • Interpolation
  • De-Block Filtering
  • Variable Length Coding

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MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is an ISO/IEC standard with designation ISO/IEC 14496. It was finalized and made into a formal international standard in 2000. Since then several additions were made to the standard, notably the addition of the Simple Profile Level 0 with suitable complexity to be used in mobile environments such as the UMTS 3GPP networks. The MPEG-4 standard improves on the MPEG-2 standard in both compression efficiency and coding flexibility, and hence covers a wider range of applications. The MPEG-4 part 2 (visual coding) standard was developed to address applications in emerging fields including, but not limited to digital television, interactive graphics with synthetic contents, interactive multimedia over the internet, and interactive video games.

SEDA Solutions® has already implemented the MPEG-4 video encoder and decoder for the simple and core profile on multiple platforms. The implementations are based on existing fixed-point DSP core platforms. Due to the limitations of the DSP cores, several hardware accelerators were identified and designed to cope with the huge computational burden at the encoder as well as the decoder side.

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H.264
The race to get multimedia applications to end-users has meant a surge of video processing developments in consumer products. At SEDA Solutions® we have established a team that has built a reference "C" model. The SEDA Solutions® team is capable of transferring and mapping specifications set by the standard bodies onto our clients' choice of processors and system design. SEDA's MPEG4 and H.264 video technologies are modified based on the application, profile, layer and the clients' targeted platform.

H.264/AVC is the newest video-coding standard jointly developed by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. The main objective behind this joint development was to achieve enhanced compression performance and superior video quality at comparable bit rates to existing standards. The recommendation has been approved in 2003 by ITU-T as H.264 and by ISO/IEC as International Standard 14496-10 (MPEG-4 part 10) Advanced Coding Standard. The H.264 codec offers a better quality of compression when compared to that of the MPEG-4 codec at a given bit rate. However, to achieve this gain in quality, a huge amount of computational complexity has been sacrificed.

SEDA Solutions® has embarked on the next challenge of identifying the computationally intense modules in H.264 video codec. Our efforts are focused on identifying and analyzing the computational load based on each module. The results will then be used to assist us and/or our clients in benchmarking, quality assessment and software/hardware partitioning.

For more information on Audio related products and services please contact us by email at info@sedasolutions.com.

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