Implementation of HEVC decoder on x86 processors with SIMD optimization

High Efficient Video Coding (HEVC) is the next generation video coding standard in progress. Based on the traditional hybrid coding framework, HEVC implements enhanced tools to improve compression efficiency at the cost of far more computational payload than the capacity of real-time video applications. In this paper, we focus on the software implementation of a real-time HEVC decoder over modern Intel x86 processors. First, we identify the most time-consuming modules of HM 4.0 decoder, represented by motion compensation, adaptive loopfilter, deblocking filter and integer transform. Then the single-execution-multiple-data (SIMD) methods are proposed to optimize the computational performance of these modules. Experimental results show that the optimized decoder is more than 4 times faster than the HM 4.0 decoder, with decoding speed of over 40 frames per second for 1920×1080 resolution videos on Intel i5-2400 processor.