Parallel decoding of clontext-based adaptive binary arithmetic codes based on most probable symbol prediction

Context-based adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) is the major entropy-coding algorithm employed in H.264/AVC. Although the performance gain of H.264/AVC is mainly due to CABAC, it is difficult to achieve a fast decoder because the decoding algorithm is basically sequential and computationally intensive. In this letter, a prediction scheme is proposed that enhances overall decoding performance by decoding two binary symbols at a time. A CABAC decoder based on the proposed prediction scheme improves the decoding performance by 24% compared to conventional decoders.