Apparatus and method for motion estimation for variable block sizes

A motion estimation apparatus, comprising:

• circuitry configured to
• perform parallel processing for each of three types of coding units via a processing element (PE) array unit;
• calculate respective SAD values for the three types of coding units via a sub-SAD calculation unit;
• calculate respective motion vectors for the three types of coding units via a motion vector calculation unit;
• and
• select a minimum motion vector from among the motion vectors via a minimum motion vector selector,
• wherein the three types of coding units comprise:
• an N×N block type including 64×64, 32×32, 16×16, and 8×8 block sizes;
• a 2N×N block type including 64×32, 32×16, 16×8, and 8×4 block sizes;
• and
• an N×2N block type including 32×64, 16×32, 8×16, and 4×8 block sizes,
• wherein the motion estimation apparatus supports 12 block sizes that are supported in an HEVC standard,
• wherein processing of four block sizes corresponding to each of the three types of coding units is performed with hardware shared, and
• wherein the PE array unit comprises an N×N array, a 2N×N PE array, and an N×2N PE array.