Direct Memory Access With On-The-Fly Generation of Frame Information For Unrestricted Motion Vectors

An apparatus for performing motion estimation based on at least a first video object plane (VOP), the apparatus comprising:

• memory adapted to store at least the first VOP;
• a direct memory access (DMA) module coupled with the memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled with the DMA module, the at least one processor being operative to generate a request to read a data block indicative of at least a portion of the first VOP for predicting a second VOP that is temporally adjacent to the first VOP;
• wherein the DMA module is operative:
• (i) to determine whether the data block is an unrestricted motion vector (UMV) block;
• (ii) to translate a block address for retrieving at least a portion of the data block from the memory as a function of one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module;
• and (iii) to generate a completed data block as a function of the at least a portion of the data block retrieved from the memory and the one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module, the second VOP comprising the completed data block.

An integrated circuit comprising at least one apparatus for performing motion estimation based on at least a first video object plane (VOP), the at least one apparatus comprising:

• memory adapted to store at least the first VOP;
• a direct memory access (DMA) module coupled with the memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled with the DMA module, the at least one processor being operative to generate a request to read a data block indicative of at least a portion of the first VOP for predicting a second VOP that is temporally adjacent to the first VOP;
• wherein the DMA module is operative:
• (i) to determine whether the data block is an unrestricted motion vector (UMV) block;
• (ii) to translate a block address for retrieving at least a portion of the data block from the memory as a function of one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module;
• and (iii) to generate a completed data block as a function of the at least a portion of the data block retrieved from the memory and the one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module, the second VOP comprising the completed data block.

An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having a non-transitory computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for performing motion estimation based on at least a first video object plane (VOP) stored in a memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a request to read a data block indicative of at least a portion of the first VOP for predicting a second VOP that is temporally adjacent to the first VOP;
• utilizing a direct memory access (DMA) module for determining whether the data block is an unrestricted motion vector (UMV) block;
• translating a block address for retrieving at least a portion of the data block from the memory as a function of one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module;
• and
• generating a completed data block as a function of the at least a portion of the data block retrieved from the memory and the one or more control parameters generated by the DMA module, the second VOP comprising the completed data block.