Design of a low power video decompression chip set for portable applications

This paper describes the design process of a chip set which performs real-time video decompression for wireless portable applications and concentrates on four critical aspects of the design: compression algorithm development, control complexity, programmability, and throughput. For each of these design areas, this paper evaluates the design trade-offs between low power, compression efficiency, and throughput, which are the three main requirements for wireless portable video. The chip set consists of a subband reconstruction chip and a pyramid vector quantization (PVQ) decoder chip and requires no external memory support or frame buffer. For portable applications with a resolution of 176 pixels wide, 240 lines, and 30 frames per second color video, the chip set, operating at a 1.35 V supply, dissipates less than 9 mW.