Multimedia data processing using a VLIW hardware stack processor

Abstract

Multimedia data processing is expanding due to speedier networks and bigger storage devices. The authors propose a VLIW hardware‐stack processor (VLIW‐HSP) as a special‐purpose processor for multimedia data processing. The proposed processor uses VLIW architecture for SIMD‐type parallel data processing, and the hardware stack ensures efficient processing of multimedia data. Explained in the following are VLIW‐HSP design and results of performance evaluation using a software simulator. The simulation results suggest that SIMD processing performance increases in nearly direct proportion to the number of ALUs, and the hardware stack offers performance improvement of 10 to 30%. In addition, a system designed for application‐level performance evaluation using FPGA is described. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 30(10): 34–40, 1999