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UHD 8K energy-quality scalable HEVC intra-prediction SAD unit hardware using optimized and configurable imprecise adders

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Abstract

Real-time digital video coding became a mandatory feature in current consumer electronic devices due to the popularization of video applications. However, efficiently encoding videos is an extremely processing/energy-demanding task, especially at high resolutions and frame rates. Thus, the limited energy resources and the dynamically varying system status (such as workload, battery level, user settings, etc.) require energy-efficient solutions capable to support run-time energy-quality scalability. In this work, we present an energy-quality scalable SAD Unit hardware architecture for the HEVC intra-frame prediction targeting real-time processing of UHD 8K (7680 × 4320) videos at 60 frames per second. Approximate computing is used to provide energy-quality scalability by employing configurable imprecise operators. The proposed Energy-Quality scalable architecture supports four operation points: precise computing, and 3-bit, 5-bit or 7-bit imprecision. When implemented in a 45-nm technology using Nangate standard cells library and running at 269 MHz, the proposed architecture consumes from 8.42 to 7.38 mJ to process each UHD 8K frame, according to the selected imprecision level. As a drawback, the coding efficiency (measured in BD rate) is reduced from 0.28 to 1.72%. Compared to the related works, this is the only intra-frame prediction SAD unit able to provide energy-quality scalability.

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Acknowledgements

This work is partly financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES) Finance Code 001, by FCT projects PTDC/EEI-HAC/30485/2017 and UID/CEC/50021/2019, and also by CNPq and FAPERGS Brazilian research support agencies.

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  1. Video Technology Research Group, Group of Architectures and Integrated Circuits, Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), Pelotas, RS, 96010-900, Brazil

    Roger Porto, Marcel Correa, Jones Goebel, Bruno Zatt, Luciano Agostini & Marcelo Porto

  2. Sul-Rio-Grandense Federal Institute of Science and Technology (IFSul), Bagé, Brazil

    Roger Porto & Marcel Correa

  3. Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nuno Roma

  4. INESC-ID, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nuno Roma

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  1. Roger Porto
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Porto, R., Correa, M., Goebel, J. et al. UHD 8K energy-quality scalable HEVC intra-prediction SAD unit hardware using optimized and configurable imprecise adders. J Real-Time Image Proc 17, 1685–1701 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-019-00934-2

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