Encoding device control method and device, and storage medium

A device for controlling an encoding device, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing computer instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• determine a search area in a reference image of a current n image block to be encoded, the reference image in the searching area being a search image, the reference image being stored in an external memory;
• obtain image units that are not cached in N target image blocks from the external memory in sequence, the target image block being the search image in a target area in the search area, N being an integer greater than or equal to two, the first M target image blocks of the N target image blocks constituting a rectangular image, M being any integer less than or equal to N;
• and
• store the obtained image units in a cache, the N target image blocks stored in the cache being used for a motion search of the current image block to be encoded.