Software implementations of the Q-Coder

Abstract

The Q-Coder is an important new development in arithmetic coding. It combines a simple but efficient arithmetic approximation for the multiply operation, a new formalism which yields optimally efficient hardware and software implementations, and a new technique for estimating symbol probabilities which matches the performance of any method known. This paper describes implementations of the Q-Coder following both the hardware and software paths. Detailed flowcharts are given.