Fractional motion estimation engine with parallel code unit pipelines

A system, comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• determine candidate integer level motion vectors for a video being encoded;
• divide the candidate integer level motion vectors into a plurality of groups, wherein each group of the plurality of groups corresponds to a different single row of coding units of the frame of the video;
• and
• process a group of the plurality of groups by one of a plurality of parallel row pipelines, wherein a parallel row pipeline is configured to process in parallel with other parallel row pipelines a different single row of coding units of the frame of the video, and wherein the plurality of parallel pipelines refine the candidate integer level motion vectors into candidate sub-pixel level motion vectors;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

A method of encoding a video, comprising:

• determining candidate integer level motion vectors for the video being encoded;
• and
• dividing the candidate integer level motion vectors into a plurality of groups, wherein each group of the plurality of groups corresponds to a different single row of coding units of the frame of the video;
• and
• processing a group of the plurality of groups by one of a plurality of parallel row pipelines, wherein a parallel row pipeline is configured to process in parallel with other parallel row pipelines a different single row of coding units of the frame of the video, and wherein the plurality of parallel pipelines refine the candidate integer level motion vectors into candidate sub-pixel level motion vectors.