Performance of a real-time software-only H.263 video encoder on the PowerPC processor

We present an efficient software-only implementation of a video encoder, as specified by the H.263 standard. This low bit rate coding standard is typically used for video transmission over dial-up connections, in particular video conferencing applications. The main issues were to enhance the different parts of the algorithm and adapt the program routines to the PowerPC architecture. It turned out that a major improvement in the performance can be achieved while keeping minimal degradation of image quality. The performance we demonstrated on current generation PowerPC processors, make this implementation a viable alternative to special purpose hardware solutions.