Method and System for Data Management in a Video Decoder

Abstract

A method and system for minimizing bus traffic in a video decoder is disclosed. A method and system for processing a portion of a reference picture includes designating the reference picture, selecting a display picture within the reference picture, transmitting a display picture size, and sending a display picture offset. A method and system for compressing IDCT coefficients corresponding to a macroblock, the macroblock having a plurality of blocks, includes locating each non-zero IDCT coefficient corresponding to one of the plurality of blocks, assigning an index to the non-zero IDCT coefficient, the index designating a location within the one of the plurality of blocks, packing the non-zero IDCT coefficient in little endian format, and specifying a terminator bit corresponding to the non-zero coefficient, the terminator bit indicating the end of all non-zero IDCT coefficients for the one of the plurality of blocks.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus for selectively controlling at least one hardware device within a video decoder, the apparatus comprising:
 a VLC video decoder to decode a video stream and to encode a plurality of instructions to control at least one hardware device within the video decoder, the plurality of instructions being encoded within the video stream; and   a hardware command queue manager to decode each one of the plurality of instructions, said manager to control at least one hardware device within the video decoder in response to the each one of the plurality of instructions.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising means for storing the plurality of instructions in a command queue. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for controlling comprises means for optionally performing an inverse discrete cosine transform in response to the plurality of instructions. 
     
     
         4 . An apparatus for selectively controlling at least one hardware device capable of performing an inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) within a video decoder, the apparatus comprising:
 a VLC video decoder and to encode a plurality of instructions to control at least one hardware device within the video decoder, the plurality of instructions being encoded within the video stream; and   a hardware command queue manager to decode each one of the plurality of instructions to perform the IDCT in response to the each one of the plurality of instructions.   
     
     
         5 . The apparatus according to  claim 4 , further comprising means for storing the plurality of instructions in a command queue.