A hardware MP3 decoder with low precision floating point intermediate storage

Abstract: The effects of using limited precision floating point for intermediate storage in an embedded MP3 decoder are investigated in this thesis. The advantages of using limited precision is that the values need shorter word lengths and thus a smaller memory for storage. The official reference decoder was modified so that the effects of different word lengths and algorithms could be examined. Finally, a software and hardware prototype was implemented that uses 16-bit wide memory for intermediate storage. The prototype is classified as a limited accuracy MP3 decoder. Only layer III is supported. The decoder could easily be extended to a full precision MP3 decoder if a corresponding increase in memory usage was accepted.