Dual-pipeline cabac encoder architecture

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for the lossless compression of video data in a synchronous pipelined environment. One or more syntax elements of video data are binarized into one or more ordered bins. A first context model associated with a first bin and a second context model associated with a second bin are received. The first bin is encoded based on the first context model and the second bin is encoded based on the second context model, both bins being encoded within the same clock cycle. One or more encoded bits are outputted based on encoding the first and second bin. In one embodiment, the first bin is encoded in a first pipeline and the second bin is encoded in a second pipeline. In this embodiment, two bins may be encoded every clock cycle, one per pipeline. Further, in one embodiment, multiple context models are received and one context model is selected by each pipeline for encoding. After encoding, one or more context models may be updated and stored.