CAST Unveils H.264 High-Profile Video Encoder IP Core for FPGA and ASIC Devices
CAST announced the H264-HP-E video encoder IP core. The ISO/IEC 14496-10 and ITU-T H.264 High Profile specification compliant H264-HP-E video encoder IP core is sourced from Alma Technologies. It is available now and is ideal for HD broadcast, professional video cameras, and video storage. An intra-only version features extremely low latency for real-time applications, and is suitable for AVC-Intra 50 and 100 implementations.
The hardware video encoder accepts standard incoming video (4:2:2 and 4:2:0 with up to 12 bits per color), and outputs a constant or variable bit rate H.264 compressed stream at up to 240 MBits/sec. Its efficient design requires as few as 2.5 clock cycles per pixel and provides high throughput at lower clock frequencies, enabling Full-HD video compression in low-end FPGA devices and over 1920×1080@60 input rates in ASICs.
The encoder’s advanced bit rate control rapidly adapts to content variations, providing excellent quality for even challenging video. Its generated H.264 stream respects a decoder’s Coded-Picture Buffer (HRD-CPBB compliance), ensuring uninterrupted video decoding and achieving a level of live streaming quality rarely met with other hardware encoders.
CAST H264-HP-E H.264/AVC High-Profile Video Encoder Core Features
- H.264 video encoding
- High 10, High 4:2:2, High 4:4:4 (12 bit 4:2:2 or 4:2:0)
- Main and constrained-baseline
- Intra versions
- 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 YCbCr input with 8, 10 and 12 bits per color sample
- Annex B NAL byte stream output
- Constant Bit Rate (CBR) or variable bit rate Constant Quality (CQP) modes
- Up to 240 MBits/s for CAVLC
- Up to 135 MBits/s for CABAC
- High throughput
- 2.5 clocks/pixel for 4:2:0
- 2.75 clocks/pixel for 4:2:2
- Advanced rate control operates on sub-frame basis, uses micro-adjustments per MB, and employs run-time adaptive models
- Optimizes rate distortion and perceived video quality
- Respects decoder buffer: HRD CPB compliant CBR output
- Provides uniform quality and rapidly adopts to temporal and spatial video variations
- Wide support of the available coding tools and encoding modes (see Encoding Tools)
More info: H264-HP-E H.264/AVC High-Profile Video Encoder Core
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