Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for compressing signals in a fixed point format without introducing a bias

US6148317A · kind A · utility

5Cited by
4References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 14, 1998
Grant dateNov 14, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 14, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F7/49963
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for compressing fixed point signals without introducing a bias. Signals are compressed according to a dithered rounding approach wherein signal values are rounded up and rounded down with approximately equal probability, canceling the bias that would otherwise result from the rounding operation. Numerical properties of the input signal are exploited in order to determine whether the signal value should be rounded up or down. Signal compression may, therefore, be introduced at multiple points within a system without accumulating a signal bias and degrading downstream performance. Further, one bit signal compression may be achieved in a particularly efficient fashion with a minimal amount of hardware.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.