Lossless JPEG core creates smaller files

Lossless compression core based on the JPEG-LS standard offers a compact physical size and high processing rate - up to 161Msample/s on an FPGA.

Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider Cast has expanded its family of image compression IP products with a new lossless compression core using the JPEG-LS standard.

The company believes that this is the only commercially available JPEG-LS IP core.

This addition makes CAST's family of JPEG cores the most complete from any single vendor, featuring a mix of encoders, decoders, and codecs for the JPEG, lossless JPEG, JPEG-LS, and JPEG 2000 standards.

The JPEG cores are developed by Cast partner Alma Technologies, in Athens, Greece.

Most have been silicon-proven with multiple customers, in applications ranging from JPEG for ultrasound topographers and cellular phone chipsets to JPEG2000 for satellites and LJPEG in high-end digital SLR cameras.

The new JPEGLS-E encoder core implements the ISO/IEC14495-1 JPEG-LS standard.

This low-complexity algorithm is designed to efficiently compress continuous tone colour and greyscale images (ie photos) with lossless and near-lossless levels of quality.

The core itself offers a compact physical size and unusually high processing rate - up to 161Msample/s on an FPGA - enabling HDTV processing - and has automatic and programmable features that simplify system integration.

Compared with lossless JPEG, the JPEG-LS core offers a higher compression level (smaller files) with a similar physical size.

Compared with JPEG 2000's lossless mode, it provides equivalent or greater compression with much smaller hardware.

The new core is available immediately, in HDL source code for ASICs or optimised netlists for structured ASICs and FPGAs.

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