At&t Bell Laboratories

Joseph H Othmer

Bryan D Ackland

Hemant Bheda

Efficient decoding of an hierarchical, variable length, encoded data sequence containing embedded uncoded data into a sequence of fixed length instructions for subsequent processing by a digital video processor or the like is realized in an apparatus including a decoder having a plurality of variable length code decoding elements and a control structure embedded within each decoding element for transferring the decoding operation to an appropriate one of the decoding elements in response to a prior output from the decoder element. As the encoded data sequence is processed by the apparatus, a predetermined length of the sequence is stored in a register. The control structure further responds to the encoded data sequence to initiate selection of either the predetermined length of the sequence stored in the register or a portion of the decoder output as the fixed length instruction to be output by the apparatus.

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Freehold, NJ, United States of America

Joseph H Othmer