Arm Limited

Lars Ingvar Malmborg

Reimar Gisbert Döffinger

An image encoding apparatus is configured to encode image data comprising a sequence of unencoded blocks of pixels into a sequence of encoded blocks of pixels in a predetermined image encoding format. Each encoded block of pixels has a characteristic encoding value representative of its corresponding unencoded block of pixels, and a plurality of dependently encoded blocks of pixels each have a dependent characteristic encoding value which is defined with reference to the characteristic encoding value for a preceding encoded block of pixels. The image encoding apparatus comprises a first encoding unit configured to perform an encoding process on a first group of the unencoded blocks of pixels and a second encoding unit configured to perform the encoding process on a second group of the unencoded blocks of pixels, wherein the encoding process generates an encoded block of pixels in the predetermined image encoding format, and wherein the second group immediately follows the first group and a first block of the second group is comprised in the plurality of dependently encoded blocks of pixels. The first encoding unit and the second encoding unit are configured to perform the encoding process in parallel on respective unencoded blocks of pixels in the first group and in the second group on a block-by-block basis. The image encoding apparatus is configured to perform a characteristic encoding value determination operation to determine the characteristic encoding value for a last block of pixels in the first group, before determining the dependent characteristic encoding value for the first block of the second group.

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Lund, Sweden

Lars Ingvar Malmborg