Architecture of a memory manager for an MPEG-2 video decoding circuit

A study of the MPEG-2 video decoding standard in Main Profile @ Main Level has been performed, comparing the different solutions existing for the VLSI implementation of the basic functions (Huffman decoding, IDCT...) included in the standard. Afterwards, a new dynamically configurable architecture is proposed for the memory manager, which is necessary to deal with the large data flow inside the decoder. It is aimed at interfacing the external memory, arbitrating the access requests coming from the different decoding units and allowing generic memory requests through the definition of virtual addresses. It is shown that, by means of a particular data organization, the circuit requires an external memory, which is a 2-MB DRAM in fast page or EDO mode, accessible via a 64-bit bus. The memory manager works at 27 MHz and allows a real-time decoding for MP @ ML bitstreams. It has been synthesized in a 0.8-mu m two-metal CMOS technology and presents a total area of 5.4 mm(2) for 6500 gates.