# US 2019/0174141 A1 · Sub-pictures for pixel rate balancing on multi-core platforms

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- Number: US 2019/0174141 A1
- Document ID: US20190174141A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/260,225
- Filed: 2019-01-29
- Published: 2019-06-06
- Earliest claimed: 2012-02-02
- Assignees: Texas Instruments Incorporated
- Applicants: Texas Instruments Incorporated
- Inventors: Minhua Zhou
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190174141A1

## CPC

- H04N 19/436: using parallelised computational arrangements
- H04N 19/521: {for estimating the reliability of the determined motion vectors or motion vector field, e.g. for smoothing the motion vector field or for correcting motion vectors}
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

## Abstract

A method for decoding a compressed video bit stream in a video decoder to recover a video sequence, the video decoder including a plurality of decoder processing cores is provided. The method includes determining that a picture is encoded in the compressed bit stream as a pre-determined number of independently encoded sub-pictures, and dispatching a first encoded sub-picture of the pre-determined number of sub-pictures to a first decoder processing core of the plurality of decoder processing cores and a second encoded sub-picture of the pre-determined number of sub-pictures to a second decoder processing core of the plurality of decoder processing cores, wherein the first encoded sub-picture and the second encoded sub-picture are independently decoded in parallel on the respective first and second decoder processing cores.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A video decoder comprising:
a first decoder processing core and a second decoder processing core;
a decoder controller coupled to the first decoder processing core and the second decoder processing core, wherein the decoder controller is operable to:
determine that a picture is encoded in a compressed bit stream in a predetermined number of encoded sub-pictures, each of the sub-pictures comprise at least one complete slice and at least one complete tile, wherein a number of tile rows per picture is equal to a number of sub-picture rows per picture, and wherein each sub-picture comprises an integer number of coding units; and
dispatch a first encoded sub-picture of the predetermined number of encoded sub-pictures to the first decoder processing core and a second encoded sub-picture of the predetermined number of encoded sub-pictures to the second decoder processing core
the first decoder processing core operable to decode the first encoded sub-picture; and
the second decoder processing core operable to decode the second encoded sub-picture, wherein the second decoder processing core decodes the second encoded sub-picture in parallel with the first decoder processing core decoding the first encoded sub-picture.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of sub-pictures is specified as part of a level defined by a video coding standard.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of sub-pictures is specified as a required number of sub-picture rows and a required number of sub-picture columns.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of sub-pictures is specified as a required number of sub-pictures and a minimum number of sub-picture columns.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein a size difference between a number of rows of coding units in a largest sub-picture and a number of rows of coding units in a smallest sub-picture is less than or equal to one coding unit, and wherein a size difference between a number of columns of coding units in the largest sub-picture and a number of columns of coding units in the smallest sub-picture is less than or equal to one coding unit.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein sub-picture partitioning of the picture is signaled in the compressed bit stream using a tile signaling protocol.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein dispatching further comprises:
determining an entry point of a first sub-picture bit stream in the compressed bit stream, the first sub-picture bit stream corresponding to a first sub-picture of the sub-pictures;
determining an entry point of a second sub-picture bit stream in the compressed bit stream, the second sub-picture bit stream corresponding to a second sub-picture of the sub-pictures;
directing the first sub-picture bit stream to the first decoder processing core; and
directing the second sub-picture bit stream to the second decoder processing core.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The decoder of claim 7, wherein the entry points of the first and second sub-picture bit streams are signaled in the compressed bit stream.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The decoder of claim 7, wherein dispatching further comprises:
determining that a first slice encoded in the compressed bit stream is a slice corresponding to the first sub-picture;
directing a slice bit stream corresponding to the first slice to the first decoder processing core;
determining that a second slice encoded in the compressed bit stream is a slice corresponding to the second sub-picture; and
directing a slice bit stream corresponding to the second slice to the second decoder processing core,
wherein slice bit streams corresponding to the first sub-picture and slice bit streams corresponding to the second sub-picture are interleaved in the compressed bit stream.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein each sub-picture in the predetermined number of encoded sub-pictures are independently encoded.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The decoder of claim 1, wherein the integer number of coding units are in a rectangle.