MPEG encoding and decoding system for multimedia applications

A system for encoding and decoding multimedia data, including image and at least one of graphics and text data, comprising:

• an encoder for compressing the multimedia data,
• a central processor coupled to said encoder for arranging the multimedia data compressed by said encoder in a block of variable size,
• a decoder for decompressing the compressed multimedia data of variable block size, and
• a texture buffer coupled to said encoder for storing the block of the multimedia data compressed by said encoder,
• wherein said decoder comprises an address generator responsive to a data size command from the central processor indicating the size of the block, for generating address data for reading the block from the texture buffer.

A system for encoding and decoding multimedia data, including image and at least one of graphics and text data, comprising:

• an encoder for compressing the multimedia data,
• a central processor coupled to said encoder for arranging the multimedia data compressed by said encoder in a block of variable size, and
• a decoder for decompressing the compressed multimedia data of variable block size,
• said encoder and said decoder providing compression and decompression in accordance with a Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) algorithm,
• wherein said encoder comprises:
• a compression pipeline composed of encoding units for carrying out a sequence of encoding steps defined by the MPEG compression algorithm, and
• a finite state machine responsive to said central processor for controlling said compression pipeline so as to enable various encoding units to operate simultaneously.

A system for encoding and decoding multimedia data, including image and at least one of graphics and text data, comprising:

• an encoder for compressing the multimedia data,
• a central processor coupled to said encoder for arranging the multimedia data compressed by said encoder in a block of variable size, and
• a decoder for decompressing the compressed multimedia data of variable block size,
• said encoder and said decoder providing compression and decompression in accordance with a Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) algorithm,
• wherein said decoder comprises:
• a decompression pipeline composed of decoding units for carrying out a sequence of decoding steps defined by the MPEG decompression algorithm, and
• a finite state machine responsive to said central processor for controlling said decompression pipeline so as to enable various decoding units to operate simultaneously.

An MPEG system for compressing multimedia data comprising:

• a central processor for controlling a compression process,
• a multimedia data selector coupled to sources of image, graphics and text data, and responsive to said central processor for inputting the image, graphics and text data to be compressed,
• an encoder responsive to said selector for compressing the image, graphics and text data in accordance with an MPEG compression algorithm, and
• a texture buffer responsive to said encoder for receiving blocks of the image, graphics and text data compressed by said encoder,
• said central processor controlling said encoder to vary sizes of the blocks supplied by said encoder.

An MPEG system for decompressing multimedia data comprising:

• a central processor for controlling a decompression process,
• a texture buffer for storing variable-size blocks of compressed image, graphics and text data,
• a decoder responsive to said central processor for reading and decompressing the blocks of the image, graphics and text data stored in the texture buffer in accordance with the MPEG decompression algorithm, and
• a multimedia monitor for displaying the image, graphics and text data decompressed by said decoder,
• said central processor controlling said decoder to vary sizes of the blocks read by said decoder.

A method of compressing and decompressing multimedia data, comprising the steps of:

• receiving image, graphics and text data to be compressed,
• compressing the image, graphics and text data in accordance with an MPEG compression algorithm,
• arranging the compressed image, graphics and text data into blocks of variable size,
• writing the blocks of variable size into a buffer,
• reading the blocks of variable size from the buffer, and
• decompressing the read image, graphics and text data in accordance with the MPEG decompression algorithm.