Memory video data storage structure optimized for small 2-D data transfer
View Patent ↗An apparatus and method for storing image data comprising a first storage device and a second storage device. The first storage device may be configured to store at least one first pixel from a first field of a frame of the image at a first physical address in the first storage device. The second storage device may be configured to store a second pixel from a second field of the frame of the image at a second physical address in the second storage device. The first and second physical addresses may have the same relative position in an address space of the respective storage devices.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a controller configured to divide a frame of image data into a plurality of tiles; and
a memory configured to store said plurality of tiles, wherein at least one of said plurality of tiles comprises data from both a first field and a second field of said frame and said image data in each of said plurality of tiles is stored as a plurality of rows such that each row comprises pixels from at least two lines of a respective tile.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each of said plurality of tiles is divided into a plurality of sub-tiles, each of said sub-tiles comprising a plurality of lines of a respective tile.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said plurality of lines comprises data from both said first and second fields.
4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apparatus comprises at least one of a video encoder, a video decoder, a video compressor, a video decompressor, a video CODEC.
5. A method for storing interlaced image data comprising the steps of:
dividing a frame of said image data comprising two fields into a plurality of tiles, wherein at least one of said plurality of tiles contains data from both fields; and
storing said plurality of tiles, wherein said image data in each of said plurality of tiles is stored as a plurality of rows such that each row comprises pixels from at least two lines of a respective tile.
6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:
dividing at least one of said plurality of tiles into a plurality of sub-tiles, wherein each sub-tile comprises a plurality of lines of a respective tile.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein at least one of said plurality of sub-tiles comprises data from only a first one of said two fields and at least one other of said plurality of sub-tiles comprises data from only a second one of said two fields.
8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein at least one of said plurality of sub-tiles comprises data from both of said two fields.
9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the storage of image data in said plurality of tiles is alternated between line pairs from opposite fields of said image in two separate storage devices.
10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein two lines of a field are stored together.
11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the storage of image data in said plurality of tiles is alternated between even and odd lines of said frame, two at a time, in two separate storage devices.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein a sub-tile of one of said plurality of tiles comprises data from two lines in said tile of one of said fields.
13. A method for storing image data comprising the steps of:
dividing a frame of said image data into a plurality of tiles;
dividing at least one of said plurality of tiles into a plurality of sub-tiles, wherein each of said plurality of sub-tiles comprises pixels from two or more lines of a respective tiles; and
storing said image data as a plurality of rows, wherein said pixels of each sub-tile are stored as one of said plurality of rows.
14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein at least one of said plurality of tiles comprises data from a first and a second field of said frame.
15. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising the step of:
alternating said pixels in each of said plurality of rows between line pairs of a respective one of said plurality of sub-tiles.
16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein each sub-tile comprises 2 lines of a respective tile.
17. The method according to claim 13 , wherein each sub-tile comprises 4 lines of a respective tile.
18. The method according to claim 13 , wherein at least one sub-tile comprises data from a first and a second field of said frame.
19. The method according to claim 13 , wherein:
at least one of said sub-tiles comprises data from only a first field of said frame; and
at least one other of said sub-tiles comprises data from only a second field of said frame.
20. A method for storing image data comprising the steps of:
dividing a frame of said image data into a plurality of tiles;
dividing at least one of said plurality of tiles into a plurality of rows, wherein each of said plurality of rows comprises pixels from two or more lines of a respective tile and said pixels in each of said rows alternate between line pairs of the respective tile; and
storing said plurality of rows, wherein image data in each of said plurality of tiles is stored in a non-raster format.