Image buffering techniques

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a buffer having a fixed number of storage slots, each storage slot to store a reconstructed picture representation received from an image processing module;

a buffer status unit to store a plurality of information items, the plurality of information items to indicate one or more characteristics of the buffer;

a buffer control module to manage storage within the buffer and to store the reconstructed picture representation in the buffer based on the type of the reconstructed picture representation; and

a remove picture module to select one of the storage slots for emptying by parsing information included in each stored reconstructed picture representation and evaluating a characteristic of each stored reconstructed picture representation, and to empty the selected storage slot when the buffer is full.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a store picture module to determine whether a current picture is a field picture or a frame picture and to determine where in the buffer to store the current picture accordingly.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , the store picture module further to:

determine whether a field picture is a first or second field picture;

store a first field picture in a portion designated for first field picture storage of an available slot in the buffer; and

store a second field picture in the buffer by locating a slot for storage based on a last field offset parameter, wherein the last field offset parameter indicates a slot in the buffer where a corresponding first field picture is already stored.

4. An apparatus, comprising:

a video decoder to generate decoded video signals according to an inter-prediction technique, the inter-prediction technique employing a plurality of reconstructed reference picture representations;

a buffer having a fixed number of storage slots to store the plurality of reconstructed reference picture representations;

a buffer status unit to store a plurality of information items, the plurality of information items to indicate one or more characteristics of the buffer;

a buffer control module to manage storage within the buffer; and

a remove picture module to select one of the storage slots for emptying by parsing information included in each stored reconstructed reference picture representation and evaluating a characteristic of each stored reconstructed reference picture representation, and to empty the selected storage slot when the buffer is full.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , further comprising:

a store picture module to determine whether a current picture is a field picture or a frame picture and to determine where in the buffer to store the current picture accordingly.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , the store picture module further to:

determine whether a field picture is a first or second field picture;

store a first field picture in a portion designated for first field picture storage of an available slot in the buffer; and

store a second field picture in the buffer by locating a slot for storage based on a last field offset parameter, wherein the last field offset parameter indicates a slot in the buffer where a corresponding first field picture is already stored.

7. A method, comprising:

allocating a buffer having a fixed number of storage slots;

receiving a reconstructed reference picture from a video decoder;

identifying one of the storage slots for the reconstructed picture based on the type of the reconstructed reference picture;

storing the reconstructed picture in the identified storage slot; and

selecting a storage slot to empty by parsing information included in each stored reconstructed picture and evaluating a characteristic of each stored reconstructed picture, and emptying the selected storage slots when the buffer is full.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein identifying one of the storage slots for the reconstructed picture based on the type of the reconstructed reference picture comprises determining whether a current picture is a field picture or a frame picture.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

determining whether a field picture is a first or second field picture;

storing a first field picture in a portion designated for first field picture storage of an available slot in the buffer; and

storing a second field picture in the buffer by locating a slot for storage based on a last field offset parameter, wherein the last field offset parameter indicates a slot in the buffer where a corresponding first field picture is already stored.

10. An article comprising a machine-readable non-transitory storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

allocate a buffer having a fixed number of storage slots;

receive a reconstructed reference picture from a video decoder;

identify one of the storage slots for the reconstructed picture based on the type of the reconstructed reference picture;

store the reconstructed picture in the identified storage slot; and

select a storage slot to empty by parsing information included in each stored reconstructed picture and evaluating a characteristic of each stored reconstructed picture, and empty the selected storage slots when the buffer is full.