2006 Reports

A JPEG Decoder in SHIM

Vasudevan, Nalini; Edwards, Stephen A.

Image compression plays an important role in multimedia systems, digital systems, handheld systems and various other devices. Efficient image processing techniques are needed to make images suitable for use in embedded systems. This paper describes an implementation of a JPEG decoder in the SHIM programming language. SHIM is a software/hardware integration language whose aim is to provide communication between hardware and software while providing deterministic concurrency. The paper shows that a JPEG decoder is a good application and reasonable test case for the SHIM language and illustrates the ease with which conventional sequential decoders can be modified to achieve concurrency.