Frame Buffer Compression For Low-Power Video Coding

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid frame buffer compression algorithm to reduce the memory bandwidth for low-power video coding. In our work, we first decompose the full-resolution image into low resolution (LR) and high resolution (HR) components. We then calculate the HR residual by taking the difference between original HR pixel and an estimate derived from surrounding LR pixels. Finally, we use absolute moment block truncation coding to quantize and compress the LR pixel and HR residual data so as to reduce the memory bandwidth. We integrate our approach into the JCT-VC reference software for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Results show negligible impact on coding efficiency with significant memory bandwidth reduction. Specifically, we observe a bit rate increase of 0.38% and 1% with 21% and 31% memory bandwidth reduction, respectively.