Data partition analyses for MPEG-2 decoders on a dual core embedded Platform

Three main roots devalue the performance of the multicore video decoder: data dependency, imbalanced workload, and resource contention. This paper strategically employs one frame partition and group of macroblock row (GMR) partitions, with different GMR sizes, for a dual core MPEG-2 decoder to reduce or remove the effect of data dependency and also to analyze how much deterioration those roots cause. Six MPEG-2 simple profile sequences are tested by the decoder software run in a PAC Duo Platform, a heterogeneous multicore SoC containing one ARM core and two PACDSP's (Parallel Architecture Core DSP). The experimental result indicates that the GMR partitions normally have better performance than frame partition does and the GMR partitions with smaller number of macroblock rows have faster decoding speed than the ones with larger number of macroblock rows.