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Dees_Troy51a0e822012-09-05 15:24:24 -04001IJG JPEG LIBRARY: SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
2
3Copyright (C) 1991-1995, Thomas G. Lane.
4This file is part of the Independent JPEG Group's software.
5For conditions of distribution and use, see the accompanying README file.
6
7
8This file provides an overview of the architecture of the IJG JPEG software;
9that is, the functions of the various modules in the system and the interfaces
10between modules. For more precise details about any data structure or calling
11convention, see the include files and comments in the source code.
12
13We assume that the reader is already somewhat familiar with the JPEG standard.
14The README file includes references for learning about JPEG. The file
15libjpeg.doc describes the library from the viewpoint of an application
16programmer using the library; it's best to read that file before this one.
17Also, the file coderules.doc describes the coding style conventions we use.
18
19In this document, JPEG-specific terminology follows the JPEG standard:
20 A "component" means a color channel, e.g., Red or Luminance.
21 A "sample" is a single component value (i.e., one number in the image data).
22 A "coefficient" is a frequency coefficient (a DCT transform output number).
23 A "block" is an 8x8 group of samples or coefficients.
24 An "MCU" (minimum coded unit) is an interleaved set of blocks of size
25 determined by the sampling factors, or a single block in a
26 noninterleaved scan.
27We do not use the terms "pixel" and "sample" interchangeably. When we say
28pixel, we mean an element of the full-size image, while a sample is an element
29of the downsampled image. Thus the number of samples may vary across
30components while the number of pixels does not. (This terminology is not used
31rigorously throughout the code, but it is used in places where confusion would
32otherwise result.)
33
34
35*** System features ***
36
37The IJG distribution contains two parts:
38 * A subroutine library for JPEG compression and decompression.
39 * cjpeg/djpeg, two sample applications that use the library to transform
40 JFIF JPEG files to and from several other image formats.
41cjpeg/djpeg are of no great intellectual complexity: they merely add a simple
42command-line user interface and I/O routines for several uncompressed image
43formats. This document concentrates on the library itself.
44
45We desire the library to be capable of supporting all JPEG baseline, extended
46sequential, and progressive DCT processes. Hierarchical processes are not
47supported.
48
49The library does not support the lossless (spatial) JPEG process. Lossless
50JPEG shares little or no code with lossy JPEG, and would normally be used
51without the extensive pre- and post-processing provided by this library.
52We feel that lossless JPEG is better handled by a separate library.
53
54Within these limits, any set of compression parameters allowed by the JPEG
55spec should be readable for decompression. (We can be more restrictive about
56what formats we can generate.) Although the system design allows for all
57parameter values, some uncommon settings are not yet implemented and may
58never be; nonintegral sampling ratios are the prime example. Furthermore,
59we treat 8-bit vs. 12-bit data precision as a compile-time switch, not a
60run-time option, because most machines can store 8-bit pixels much more
61compactly than 12-bit.
62
63For legal reasons, JPEG arithmetic coding is not currently supported, but
64extending the library to include it would be straightforward.
65
66By itself, the library handles only interchange JPEG datastreams --- in
67particular the widely used JFIF file format. The library can be used by
68surrounding code to process interchange or abbreviated JPEG datastreams that
69are embedded in more complex file formats. (For example, libtiff uses this
70library to implement JPEG compression within the TIFF file format.)
71
72The library includes a substantial amount of code that is not covered by the
73JPEG standard but is necessary for typical applications of JPEG. These
74functions preprocess the image before JPEG compression or postprocess it after
75decompression. They include colorspace conversion, downsampling/upsampling,
76and color quantization. This code can be omitted if not needed.
77
78A wide range of quality vs. speed tradeoffs are possible in JPEG processing,
79and even more so in decompression postprocessing. The decompression library
80provides multiple implementations that cover most of the useful tradeoffs,
81ranging from very-high-quality down to fast-preview operation. On the
82compression side we have generally not provided low-quality choices, since
83compression is normally less time-critical. It should be understood that the
84low-quality modes may not meet the JPEG standard's accuracy requirements;
85nonetheless, they are useful for viewers.
86
87
88*** Portability issues ***
89
90Portability is an essential requirement for the library. The key portability
91issues that show up at the level of system architecture are:
92
931. Memory usage. We want the code to be able to run on PC-class machines
94with limited memory. Images should therefore be processed sequentially (in
95strips), to avoid holding the whole image in memory at once. Where a
96full-image buffer is necessary, we should be able to use either virtual memory
97or temporary files.
98
992. Near/far pointer distinction. To run efficiently on 80x86 machines, the
100code should distinguish "small" objects (kept in near data space) from
101"large" ones (kept in far data space). This is an annoying restriction, but
102fortunately it does not impact code quality for less brain-damaged machines,
103and the source code clutter turns out to be minimal with sufficient use of
104pointer typedefs.
105
1063. Data precision. We assume that "char" is at least 8 bits, "short" and
107"int" at least 16, "long" at least 32. The code will work fine with larger
108data sizes, although memory may be used inefficiently in some cases. However,
109the JPEG compressed datastream must ultimately appear on external storage as a
110sequence of 8-bit bytes if it is to conform to the standard. This may pose a
111problem on machines where char is wider than 8 bits. The library represents
112compressed data as an array of values of typedef JOCTET. If no data type
113exactly 8 bits wide is available, custom data source and data destination
114modules must be written to unpack and pack the chosen JOCTET datatype into
1158-bit external representation.
116
117
118*** System overview ***
119
120The compressor and decompressor are each divided into two main sections:
121the JPEG compressor or decompressor proper, and the preprocessing or
122postprocessing functions. The interface between these two sections is the
123image data that the official JPEG spec regards as its input or output: this
124data is in the colorspace to be used for compression, and it is downsampled
125to the sampling factors to be used. The preprocessing and postprocessing
126steps are responsible for converting a normal image representation to or from
127this form. (Those few applications that want to deal with YCbCr downsampled
128data can skip the preprocessing or postprocessing step.)
129
130Looking more closely, the compressor library contains the following main
131elements:
132
133 Preprocessing:
134 * Color space conversion (e.g., RGB to YCbCr).
135 * Edge expansion and downsampling. Optionally, this step can do simple
136 smoothing --- this is often helpful for low-quality source data.
137 JPEG proper:
138 * MCU assembly, DCT, quantization.
139 * Entropy coding (sequential or progressive, Huffman or arithmetic).
140
141In addition to these modules we need overall control, marker generation,
142and support code (memory management & error handling). There is also a
143module responsible for physically writing the output data --- typically
144this is just an interface to fwrite(), but some applications may need to
145do something else with the data.
146
147The decompressor library contains the following main elements:
148
149 JPEG proper:
150 * Entropy decoding (sequential or progressive, Huffman or arithmetic).
151 * Dequantization, inverse DCT, MCU disassembly.
152 Postprocessing:
153 * Upsampling. Optionally, this step may be able to do more general
154 rescaling of the image.
155 * Color space conversion (e.g., YCbCr to RGB). This step may also
156 provide gamma adjustment [ currently it does not ].
157 * Optional color quantization (e.g., reduction to 256 colors).
158 * Optional color precision reduction (e.g., 24-bit to 15-bit color).
159 [This feature is not currently implemented.]
160
161We also need overall control, marker parsing, and a data source module.
162The support code (memory management & error handling) can be shared with
163the compression half of the library.
164
165There may be several implementations of each of these elements, particularly
166in the decompressor, where a wide range of speed/quality tradeoffs is very
167useful. It must be understood that some of the best speedups involve
168merging adjacent steps in the pipeline. For example, upsampling, color space
169conversion, and color quantization might all be done at once when using a
170low-quality ordered-dither technique. The system architecture is designed to
171allow such merging where appropriate.
172
173
174Note: it is convenient to regard edge expansion (padding to block boundaries)
175as a preprocessing/postprocessing function, even though the JPEG spec includes
176it in compression/decompression. We do this because downsampling/upsampling
177can be simplified a little if they work on padded data: it's not necessary to
178have special cases at the right and bottom edges. Therefore the interface
179buffer is always an integral number of blocks wide and high, and we expect
180compression preprocessing to pad the source data properly. Padding will occur
181only to the next block (8-sample) boundary. In an interleaved-scan situation,
182additional dummy blocks may be used to fill out MCUs, but the MCU assembly and
183disassembly logic will create or discard these blocks internally. (This is
184advantageous for speed reasons, since we avoid DCTing the dummy blocks.
185It also permits a small reduction in file size, because the compressor can
186choose dummy block contents so as to minimize their size in compressed form.
187Finally, it makes the interface buffer specification independent of whether
188the file is actually interleaved or not.) Applications that wish to deal
189directly with the downsampled data must provide similar buffering and padding
190for odd-sized images.
191
192
193*** Poor man's object-oriented programming ***
194
195It should be clear by now that we have a lot of quasi-independent processing
196steps, many of which have several possible behaviors. To avoid cluttering the
197code with lots of switch statements, we use a simple form of object-style
198programming to separate out the different possibilities.
199
200For example, two different color quantization algorithms could be implemented
201as two separate modules that present the same external interface; at runtime,
202the calling code will access the proper module indirectly through an "object".
203
204We can get the limited features we need while staying within portable C.
205The basic tool is a function pointer. An "object" is just a struct
206containing one or more function pointer fields, each of which corresponds to
207a method name in real object-oriented languages. During initialization we
208fill in the function pointers with references to whichever module we have
209determined we need to use in this run. Then invocation of the module is done
210by indirecting through a function pointer; on most machines this is no more
211expensive than a switch statement, which would be the only other way of
212making the required run-time choice. The really significant benefit, of
213course, is keeping the source code clean and well structured.
214
215We can also arrange to have private storage that varies between different
216implementations of the same kind of object. We do this by making all the
217module-specific object structs be separately allocated entities, which will
218be accessed via pointers in the master compression or decompression struct.
219The "public" fields or methods for a given kind of object are specified by
220a commonly known struct. But a module's initialization code can allocate
221a larger struct that contains the common struct as its first member, plus
222additional private fields. With appropriate pointer casting, the module's
223internal functions can access these private fields. (For a simple example,
224see jdatadst.c, which implements the external interface specified by struct
225jpeg_destination_mgr, but adds extra fields.)
226
227(Of course this would all be a lot easier if we were using C++, but we are
228not yet prepared to assume that everyone has a C++ compiler.)
229
230An important benefit of this scheme is that it is easy to provide multiple
231versions of any method, each tuned to a particular case. While a lot of
232precalculation might be done to select an optimal implementation of a method,
233the cost per invocation is constant. For example, the upsampling step might
234have a "generic" method, plus one or more "hardwired" methods for the most
235popular sampling factors; the hardwired methods would be faster because they'd
236use straight-line code instead of for-loops. The cost to determine which
237method to use is paid only once, at startup, and the selection criteria are
238hidden from the callers of the method.
239
240This plan differs a little bit from usual object-oriented structures, in that
241only one instance of each object class will exist during execution. The
242reason for having the class structure is that on different runs we may create
243different instances (choose to execute different modules). You can think of
244the term "method" as denoting the common interface presented by a particular
245set of interchangeable functions, and "object" as denoting a group of related
246methods, or the total shared interface behavior of a group of modules.
247
248
249*** Overall control structure ***
250
251We previously mentioned the need for overall control logic in the compression
252and decompression libraries. In IJG implementations prior to v5, overall
253control was mostly provided by "pipeline control" modules, which proved to be
254large, unwieldy, and hard to understand. To improve the situation, the
255control logic has been subdivided into multiple modules. The control modules
256consist of:
257
2581. Master control for module selection and initialization. This has two
259responsibilities:
260
261 1A. Startup initialization at the beginning of image processing.
262 The individual processing modules to be used in this run are selected
263 and given initialization calls.
264
265 1B. Per-pass control. This determines how many passes will be performed
266 and calls each active processing module to configure itself
267 appropriately at the beginning of each pass. End-of-pass processing,
268 where necessary, is also invoked from the master control module.
269
270 Method selection is partially distributed, in that a particular processing
271 module may contain several possible implementations of a particular method,
272 which it will select among when given its initialization call. The master
273 control code need only be concerned with decisions that affect more than
274 one module.
275
2762. Data buffering control. A separate control module exists for each
277 inter-processing-step data buffer. This module is responsible for
278 invoking the processing steps that write or read that data buffer.
279
280Each buffer controller sees the world as follows:
281
282input data => processing step A => buffer => processing step B => output data
283 | | |
284 ------------------ controller ------------------
285
286The controller knows the dataflow requirements of steps A and B: how much data
287they want to accept in one chunk and how much they output in one chunk. Its
288function is to manage its buffer and call A and B at the proper times.
289
290A data buffer control module may itself be viewed as a processing step by a
291higher-level control module; thus the control modules form a binary tree with
292elementary processing steps at the leaves of the tree.
293
294The control modules are objects. A considerable amount of flexibility can
295be had by replacing implementations of a control module. For example:
296* Merging of adjacent steps in the pipeline is done by replacing a control
297 module and its pair of processing-step modules with a single processing-
298 step module. (Hence the possible merges are determined by the tree of
299 control modules.)
300* In some processing modes, a given interstep buffer need only be a "strip"
301 buffer large enough to accommodate the desired data chunk sizes. In other
302 modes, a full-image buffer is needed and several passes are required.
303 The control module determines which kind of buffer is used and manipulates
304 virtual array buffers as needed. One or both processing steps may be
305 unaware of the multi-pass behavior.
306
307In theory, we might be able to make all of the data buffer controllers
308interchangeable and provide just one set of implementations for all. In
309practice, each one contains considerable special-case processing for its
310particular job. The buffer controller concept should be regarded as an
311overall system structuring principle, not as a complete description of the
312task performed by any one controller.
313
314
315*** Compression object structure ***
316
317Here is a sketch of the logical structure of the JPEG compression library:
318
319 |-- Colorspace conversion
320 |-- Preprocessing controller --|
321 | |-- Downsampling
322Main controller --|
323 | |-- Forward DCT, quantize
324 |-- Coefficient controller --|
325 |-- Entropy encoding
326
327This sketch also describes the flow of control (subroutine calls) during
328typical image data processing. Each of the components shown in the diagram is
329an "object" which may have several different implementations available. One
330or more source code files contain the actual implementation(s) of each object.
331
332The objects shown above are:
333
334* Main controller: buffer controller for the subsampled-data buffer, which
335 holds the preprocessed input data. This controller invokes preprocessing to
336 fill the subsampled-data buffer, and JPEG compression to empty it. There is
337 usually no need for a full-image buffer here; a strip buffer is adequate.
338
339* Preprocessing controller: buffer controller for the downsampling input data
340 buffer, which lies between colorspace conversion and downsampling. Note
341 that a unified conversion/downsampling module would probably replace this
342 controller entirely.
343
344* Colorspace conversion: converts application image data into the desired
345 JPEG color space; also changes the data from pixel-interleaved layout to
346 separate component planes. Processes one pixel row at a time.
347
348* Downsampling: performs reduction of chroma components as required.
349 Optionally may perform pixel-level smoothing as well. Processes a "row
350 group" at a time, where a row group is defined as Vmax pixel rows of each
351 component before downsampling, and Vk sample rows afterwards (remember Vk
352 differs across components). Some downsampling or smoothing algorithms may
353 require context rows above and below the current row group; the
354 preprocessing controller is responsible for supplying these rows via proper
355 buffering. The downsampler is responsible for edge expansion at the right
356 edge (i.e., extending each sample row to a multiple of 8 samples); but the
357 preprocessing controller is responsible for vertical edge expansion (i.e.,
358 duplicating the bottom sample row as needed to make a multiple of 8 rows).
359
360* Coefficient controller: buffer controller for the DCT-coefficient data.
361 This controller handles MCU assembly, including insertion of dummy DCT
362 blocks when needed at the right or bottom edge. When performing
363 Huffman-code optimization or emitting a multiscan JPEG file, this
364 controller is responsible for buffering the full image. The equivalent of
365 one fully interleaved MCU row of subsampled data is processed per call,
366 even when the JPEG file is noninterleaved.
367
368* Forward DCT and quantization: Perform DCT, quantize, and emit coefficients.
369 Works on one or more DCT blocks at a time. (Note: the coefficients are now
370 emitted in normal array order, which the entropy encoder is expected to
371 convert to zigzag order as necessary. Prior versions of the IJG code did
372 the conversion to zigzag order within the quantization step.)
373
374* Entropy encoding: Perform Huffman or arithmetic entropy coding and emit the
375 coded data to the data destination module. Works on one MCU per call.
376 For progressive JPEG, the same DCT blocks are fed to the entropy coder
377 during each pass, and the coder must emit the appropriate subset of
378 coefficients.
379
380In addition to the above objects, the compression library includes these
381objects:
382
383* Master control: determines the number of passes required, controls overall
384 and per-pass initialization of the other modules.
385
386* Marker writing: generates JPEG markers (except for RSTn, which is emitted
387 by the entropy encoder when needed).
388
389* Data destination manager: writes the output JPEG datastream to its final
390 destination (e.g., a file). The destination manager supplied with the
391 library knows how to write to a stdio stream; for other behaviors, the
392 surrounding application may provide its own destination manager.
393
394* Memory manager: allocates and releases memory, controls virtual arrays
395 (with backing store management, where required).
396
397* Error handler: performs formatting and output of error and trace messages;
398 determines handling of nonfatal errors. The surrounding application may
399 override some or all of this object's methods to change error handling.
400
401* Progress monitor: supports output of "percent-done" progress reports.
402 This object represents an optional callback to the surrounding application:
403 if wanted, it must be supplied by the application.
404
405The error handler, destination manager, and progress monitor objects are
406defined as separate objects in order to simplify application-specific
407customization of the JPEG library. A surrounding application may override
408individual methods or supply its own all-new implementation of one of these
409objects. The object interfaces for these objects are therefore treated as
410part of the application interface of the library, whereas the other objects
411are internal to the library.
412
413The error handler and memory manager are shared by JPEG compression and
414decompression; the progress monitor, if used, may be shared as well.
415
416
417*** Decompression object structure ***
418
419Here is a sketch of the logical structure of the JPEG decompression library:
420
421 |-- Entropy decoding
422 |-- Coefficient controller --|
423 | |-- Dequantize, Inverse DCT
424Main controller --|
425 | |-- Upsampling
426 |-- Postprocessing controller --| |-- Colorspace conversion
427 |-- Color quantization
428 |-- Color precision reduction
429
430As before, this diagram also represents typical control flow. The objects
431shown are:
432
433* Main controller: buffer controller for the subsampled-data buffer, which
434 holds the output of JPEG decompression proper. This controller's primary
435 task is to feed the postprocessing procedure. Some upsampling algorithms
436 may require context rows above and below the current row group; when this
437 is true, the main controller is responsible for managing its buffer so as
438 to make context rows available. In the current design, the main buffer is
439 always a strip buffer; a full-image buffer is never required.
440
441* Coefficient controller: buffer controller for the DCT-coefficient data.
442 This controller handles MCU disassembly, including deletion of any dummy
443 DCT blocks at the right or bottom edge. When reading a multiscan JPEG
444 file, this controller is responsible for buffering the full image.
445 (Buffering DCT coefficients, rather than samples, is necessary to support
446 progressive JPEG.) The equivalent of one fully interleaved MCU row of
447 subsampled data is processed per call, even when the source JPEG file is
448 noninterleaved.
449
450* Entropy decoding: Read coded data from the data source module and perform
451 Huffman or arithmetic entropy decoding. Works on one MCU per call.
452 For progressive JPEG decoding, the coefficient controller supplies the prior
453 coefficients of each MCU (initially all zeroes), which the entropy decoder
454 modifies in each scan.
455
456* Dequantization and inverse DCT: like it says. Note that the coefficients
457 buffered by the coefficient controller have NOT been dequantized; we
458 merge dequantization and inverse DCT into a single step for speed reasons.
459 When scaled-down output is asked for, simplified DCT algorithms may be used
460 that emit only 1x1, 2x2, or 4x4 samples per DCT block, not the full 8x8.
461 Works on one DCT block at a time.
462
463* Postprocessing controller: buffer controller for the color quantization
464 input buffer, when quantization is in use. (Without quantization, this
465 controller just calls the upsampler.) For two-pass quantization, this
466 controller is responsible for buffering the full-image data.
467
468* Upsampling: restores chroma components to full size. (May support more
469 general output rescaling, too. Note that if undersized DCT outputs have
470 been emitted by the DCT module, this module must adjust so that properly
471 sized outputs are created.) Works on one row group at a time. This module
472 also calls the color conversion module, so its top level is effectively a
473 buffer controller for the upsampling->color conversion buffer. However, in
474 all but the highest-quality operating modes, upsampling and color
475 conversion are likely to be merged into a single step.
476
477* Colorspace conversion: convert from JPEG color space to output color space,
478 and change data layout from separate component planes to pixel-interleaved.
479 Works on one pixel row at a time.
480
481* Color quantization: reduce the data to colormapped form, using either an
482 externally specified colormap or an internally generated one. This module
483 is not used for full-color output. Works on one pixel row at a time; may
484 require two passes to generate a color map. Note that the output will
485 always be a single component representing colormap indexes. In the current
486 design, the output values are JSAMPLEs, so an 8-bit compilation cannot
487 quantize to more than 256 colors. This is unlikely to be a problem in
488 practice.
489
490* Color reduction: this module handles color precision reduction, e.g.,
491 generating 15-bit color (5 bits/primary) from JPEG's 24-bit output.
492 Not quite clear yet how this should be handled... should we merge it with
493 colorspace conversion???
494
495Note that some high-speed operating modes might condense the entire
496postprocessing sequence to a single module (upsample, color convert, and
497quantize in one step).
498
499In addition to the above objects, the decompression library includes these
500objects:
501
502* Master control: determines the number of passes required, controls overall
503 and per-pass initialization of the other modules. This is subdivided into
504 input and output control: jdinput.c controls only input-side processing,
505 while jdmaster.c handles overall initialization and output-side control.
506
507* Marker reading: decodes JPEG markers (except for RSTn).
508
509* Data source manager: supplies the input JPEG datastream. The source
510 manager supplied with the library knows how to read from a stdio stream;
511 for other behaviors, the surrounding application may provide its own source
512 manager.
513
514* Memory manager: same as for compression library.
515
516* Error handler: same as for compression library.
517
518* Progress monitor: same as for compression library.
519
520As with compression, the data source manager, error handler, and progress
521monitor are candidates for replacement by a surrounding application.
522
523
524*** Decompression input and output separation ***
525
526To support efficient incremental display of progressive JPEG files, the
527decompressor is divided into two sections that can run independently:
528
5291. Data input includes marker parsing, entropy decoding, and input into the
530 coefficient controller's DCT coefficient buffer. Note that this
531 processing is relatively cheap and fast.
532
5332. Data output reads from the DCT coefficient buffer and performs the IDCT
534 and all postprocessing steps.
535
536For a progressive JPEG file, the data input processing is allowed to get
537arbitrarily far ahead of the data output processing. (This occurs only
538if the application calls jpeg_consume_input(); otherwise input and output
539run in lockstep, since the input section is called only when the output
540section needs more data.) In this way the application can avoid making
541extra display passes when data is arriving faster than the display pass
542can run. Furthermore, it is possible to abort an output pass without
543losing anything, since the coefficient buffer is read-only as far as the
544output section is concerned. See libjpeg.doc for more detail.
545
546A full-image coefficient array is only created if the JPEG file has multiple
547scans (or if the application specifies buffered-image mode anyway). When
548reading a single-scan file, the coefficient controller normally creates only
549a one-MCU buffer, so input and output processing must run in lockstep in this
550case. jpeg_consume_input() is effectively a no-op in this situation.
551
552The main impact of dividing the decompressor in this fashion is that we must
553be very careful with shared variables in the cinfo data structure. Each
554variable that can change during the course of decompression must be
555classified as belonging to data input or data output, and each section must
556look only at its own variables. For example, the data output section may not
557depend on any of the variables that describe the current scan in the JPEG
558file, because these may change as the data input section advances into a new
559scan.
560
561The progress monitor is (somewhat arbitrarily) defined to treat input of the
562file as one pass when buffered-image mode is not used, and to ignore data
563input work completely when buffered-image mode is used. Note that the
564library has no reliable way to predict the number of passes when dealing
565with a progressive JPEG file, nor can it predict the number of output passes
566in buffered-image mode. So the work estimate is inherently bogus anyway.
567
568No comparable division is currently made in the compression library, because
569there isn't any real need for it.
570
571
572*** Data formats ***
573
574Arrays of pixel sample values use the following data structure:
575
576 typedef something JSAMPLE; a pixel component value, 0..MAXJSAMPLE
577 typedef JSAMPLE *JSAMPROW; ptr to a row of samples
578 typedef JSAMPROW *JSAMPARRAY; ptr to a list of rows
579 typedef JSAMPARRAY *JSAMPIMAGE; ptr to a list of color-component arrays
580
581The basic element type JSAMPLE will typically be one of unsigned char,
582(signed) char, or short. Short will be used if samples wider than 8 bits are
583to be supported (this is a compile-time option). Otherwise, unsigned char is
584used if possible. If the compiler only supports signed chars, then it is
585necessary to mask off the value when reading. Thus, all reads of JSAMPLE
586values must be coded as "GETJSAMPLE(value)", where the macro will be defined
587as "((value) & 0xFF)" on signed-char machines and "((int) (value))" elsewhere.
588
589With these conventions, JSAMPLE values can be assumed to be >= 0. This helps
590simplify correct rounding during downsampling, etc. The JPEG standard's
591specification that sample values run from -128..127 is accommodated by
592subtracting 128 just as the sample value is copied into the source array for
593the DCT step (this will be an array of signed ints). Similarly, during
594decompression the output of the IDCT step will be immediately shifted back to
5950..255. (NB: different values are required when 12-bit samples are in use.
596The code is written in terms of MAXJSAMPLE and CENTERJSAMPLE, which will be
597defined as 255 and 128 respectively in an 8-bit implementation, and as 4095
598and 2048 in a 12-bit implementation.)
599
600We use a pointer per row, rather than a two-dimensional JSAMPLE array. This
601choice costs only a small amount of memory and has several benefits:
602* Code using the data structure doesn't need to know the allocated width of
603 the rows. This simplifies edge expansion/compression, since we can work
604 in an array that's wider than the logical picture width.
605* Indexing doesn't require multiplication; this is a performance win on many
606 machines.
607* Arrays with more than 64K total elements can be supported even on machines
608 where malloc() cannot allocate chunks larger than 64K.
609* The rows forming a component array may be allocated at different times
610 without extra copying. This trick allows some speedups in smoothing steps
611 that need access to the previous and next rows.
612
613Note that each color component is stored in a separate array; we don't use the
614traditional layout in which the components of a pixel are stored together.
615This simplifies coding of modules that work on each component independently,
616because they don't need to know how many components there are. Furthermore,
617we can read or write each component to a temporary file independently, which
618is helpful when dealing with noninterleaved JPEG files.
619
620In general, a specific sample value is accessed by code such as
621 GETJSAMPLE(image[colorcomponent][row][col])
622where col is measured from the image left edge, but row is measured from the
623first sample row currently in memory. Either of the first two indexings can
624be precomputed by copying the relevant pointer.
625
626
627Since most image-processing applications prefer to work on images in which
628the components of a pixel are stored together, the data passed to or from the
629surrounding application uses the traditional convention: a single pixel is
630represented by N consecutive JSAMPLE values, and an image row is an array of
631(# of color components)*(image width) JSAMPLEs. One or more rows of data can
632be represented by a pointer of type JSAMPARRAY in this scheme. This scheme is
633converted to component-wise storage inside the JPEG library. (Applications
634that want to skip JPEG preprocessing or postprocessing will have to contend
635with component-wise storage.)
636
637
638Arrays of DCT-coefficient values use the following data structure:
639
640 typedef short JCOEF; a 16-bit signed integer
641 typedef JCOEF JBLOCK[DCTSIZE2]; an 8x8 block of coefficients
642 typedef JBLOCK *JBLOCKROW; ptr to one horizontal row of 8x8 blocks
643 typedef JBLOCKROW *JBLOCKARRAY; ptr to a list of such rows
644 typedef JBLOCKARRAY *JBLOCKIMAGE; ptr to a list of color component arrays
645
646The underlying type is at least a 16-bit signed integer; while "short" is big
647enough on all machines of interest, on some machines it is preferable to use
648"int" for speed reasons, despite the storage cost. Coefficients are grouped
649into 8x8 blocks (but we always use #defines DCTSIZE and DCTSIZE2 rather than
650"8" and "64").
651
652The contents of a coefficient block may be in either "natural" or zigzagged
653order, and may be true values or divided by the quantization coefficients,
654depending on where the block is in the processing pipeline. In the current
655library, coefficient blocks are kept in natural order everywhere; the entropy
656codecs zigzag or dezigzag the data as it is written or read. The blocks
657contain quantized coefficients everywhere outside the DCT/IDCT subsystems.
658(This latter decision may need to be revisited to support variable
659quantization a la JPEG Part 3.)
660
661Notice that the allocation unit is now a row of 8x8 blocks, corresponding to
662eight rows of samples. Otherwise the structure is much the same as for
663samples, and for the same reasons.
664
665On machines where malloc() can't handle a request bigger than 64Kb, this data
666structure limits us to rows of less than 512 JBLOCKs, or a picture width of
6674000+ pixels. This seems an acceptable restriction.
668
669
670On 80x86 machines, the bottom-level pointer types (JSAMPROW and JBLOCKROW)
671must be declared as "far" pointers, but the upper levels can be "near"
672(implying that the pointer lists are allocated in the DS segment).
673We use a #define symbol FAR, which expands to the "far" keyword when
674compiling on 80x86 machines and to nothing elsewhere.
675
676
677*** Suspendable processing ***
678
679In some applications it is desirable to use the JPEG library as an
680incremental, memory-to-memory filter. In this situation the data source or
681destination may be a limited-size buffer, and we can't rely on being able to
682empty or refill the buffer at arbitrary times. Instead the application would
683like to have control return from the library at buffer overflow/underrun, and
684then resume compression or decompression at a later time.
685
686This scenario is supported for simple cases. (For anything more complex, we
687recommend that the application "bite the bullet" and develop real multitasking
688capability.) The libjpeg.doc file goes into more detail about the usage and
689limitations of this capability; here we address the implications for library
690structure.
691
692The essence of the problem is that the entropy codec (coder or decoder) must
693be prepared to stop at arbitrary times. In turn, the controllers that call
694the entropy codec must be able to stop before having produced or consumed all
695the data that they normally would handle in one call. That part is reasonably
696straightforward: we make the controller call interfaces include "progress
697counters" which indicate the number of data chunks successfully processed, and
698we require callers to test the counter rather than just assume all of the data
699was processed.
700
701Rather than trying to restart at an arbitrary point, the current Huffman
702codecs are designed to restart at the beginning of the current MCU after a
703suspension due to buffer overflow/underrun. At the start of each call, the
704codec's internal state is loaded from permanent storage (in the JPEG object
705structures) into local variables. On successful completion of the MCU, the
706permanent state is updated. (This copying is not very expensive, and may even
707lead to *improved* performance if the local variables can be registerized.)
708If a suspension occurs, the codec simply returns without updating the state,
709thus effectively reverting to the start of the MCU. Note that this implies
710leaving some data unprocessed in the source/destination buffer (ie, the
711compressed partial MCU). The data source/destination module interfaces are
712specified so as to make this possible. This also implies that the data buffer
713must be large enough to hold a worst-case compressed MCU; a couple thousand
714bytes should be enough.
715
716In a successive-approximation AC refinement scan, the progressive Huffman
717decoder has to be able to undo assignments of newly nonzero coefficients if it
718suspends before the MCU is complete, since decoding requires distinguishing
719previously-zero and previously-nonzero coefficients. This is a bit tedious
720but probably won't have much effect on performance. Other variants of Huffman
721decoding need not worry about this, since they will just store the same values
722again if forced to repeat the MCU.
723
724This approach would probably not work for an arithmetic codec, since its
725modifiable state is quite large and couldn't be copied cheaply. Instead it
726would have to suspend and resume exactly at the point of the buffer end.
727
728The JPEG marker reader is designed to cope with suspension at an arbitrary
729point. It does so by backing up to the start of the marker parameter segment,
730so the data buffer must be big enough to hold the largest marker of interest.
731Again, a couple KB should be adequate. (A special "skip" convention is used
732to bypass COM and APPn markers, so these can be larger than the buffer size
733without causing problems; otherwise a 64K buffer would be needed in the worst
734case.)
735
736The JPEG marker writer currently does *not* cope with suspension. I feel that
737this is not necessary; it is much easier simply to require the application to
738ensure there is enough buffer space before starting. (An empty 2K buffer is
739more than sufficient for the header markers; and ensuring there are a dozen or
740two bytes available before calling jpeg_finish_compress() will suffice for the
741trailer.) This would not work for writing multi-scan JPEG files, but
742we simply do not intend to support that capability with suspension.
743
744
745*** Memory manager services ***
746
747The JPEG library's memory manager controls allocation and deallocation of
748memory, and it manages large "virtual" data arrays on machines where the
749operating system does not provide virtual memory. Note that the same
750memory manager serves both compression and decompression operations.
751
752In all cases, allocated objects are tied to a particular compression or
753decompression master record, and they will be released when that master
754record is destroyed.
755
756The memory manager does not provide explicit deallocation of objects.
757Instead, objects are created in "pools" of free storage, and a whole pool
758can be freed at once. This approach helps prevent storage-leak bugs, and
759it speeds up operations whenever malloc/free are slow (as they often are).
760The pools can be regarded as lifetime identifiers for objects. Two
761pools/lifetimes are defined:
762 * JPOOL_PERMANENT lasts until master record is destroyed
763 * JPOOL_IMAGE lasts until done with image (JPEG datastream)
764Permanent lifetime is used for parameters and tables that should be carried
765across from one datastream to another; this includes all application-visible
766parameters. Image lifetime is used for everything else. (A third lifetime,
767JPOOL_PASS = one processing pass, was originally planned. However it was
768dropped as not being worthwhile. The actual usage patterns are such that the
769peak memory usage would be about the same anyway; and having per-pass storage
770substantially complicates the virtual memory allocation rules --- see below.)
771
772The memory manager deals with three kinds of object:
7731. "Small" objects. Typically these require no more than 10K-20K total.
7742. "Large" objects. These may require tens to hundreds of K depending on
775 image size. Semantically they behave the same as small objects, but we
776 distinguish them for two reasons:
777 * On MS-DOS machines, large objects are referenced by FAR pointers,
778 small objects by NEAR pointers.
779 * Pool allocation heuristics may differ for large and small objects.
780 Note that individual "large" objects cannot exceed the size allowed by
781 type size_t, which may be 64K or less on some machines.
7823. "Virtual" objects. These are large 2-D arrays of JSAMPLEs or JBLOCKs
783 (typically large enough for the entire image being processed). The
784 memory manager provides stripwise access to these arrays. On machines
785 without virtual memory, the rest of the array may be swapped out to a
786 temporary file.
787
788(Note: JSAMPARRAY and JBLOCKARRAY data structures are a combination of large
789objects for the data proper and small objects for the row pointers. For
790convenience and speed, the memory manager provides single routines to create
791these structures. Similarly, virtual arrays include a small control block
792and a JSAMPARRAY or JBLOCKARRAY working buffer, all created with one call.)
793
794In the present implementation, virtual arrays are only permitted to have image
795lifespan. (Permanent lifespan would not be reasonable, and pass lifespan is
796not very useful since a virtual array's raison d'etre is to store data for
797multiple passes through the image.) We also expect that only "small" objects
798will be given permanent lifespan, though this restriction is not required by
799the memory manager.
800
801In a non-virtual-memory machine, some performance benefit can be gained by
802making the in-memory buffers for virtual arrays be as large as possible.
803(For small images, the buffers might fit entirely in memory, so blind
804swapping would be very wasteful.) The memory manager will adjust the height
805of the buffers to fit within a prespecified maximum memory usage. In order
806to do this in a reasonably optimal fashion, the manager needs to allocate all
807of the virtual arrays at once. Therefore, there isn't a one-step allocation
808routine for virtual arrays; instead, there is a "request" routine that simply
809allocates the control block, and a "realize" routine (called just once) that
810determines space allocation and creates all of the actual buffers. The
811realize routine must allow for space occupied by non-virtual large objects.
812(We don't bother to factor in the space needed for small objects, on the
813grounds that it isn't worth the trouble.)
814
815To support all this, we establish the following protocol for doing business
816with the memory manager:
817 1. Modules must request virtual arrays (which may have only image lifespan)
818 during the initial setup phase, i.e., in their jinit_xxx routines.
819 2. All "large" objects (including JSAMPARRAYs and JBLOCKARRAYs) must also be
820 allocated during initial setup.
821 3. realize_virt_arrays will be called at the completion of initial setup.
822 The above conventions ensure that sufficient information is available
823 for it to choose a good size for virtual array buffers.
824Small objects of any lifespan may be allocated at any time. We expect that
825the total space used for small objects will be small enough to be negligible
826in the realize_virt_arrays computation.
827
828In a virtual-memory machine, we simply pretend that the available space is
829infinite, thus causing realize_virt_arrays to decide that it can allocate all
830the virtual arrays as full-size in-memory buffers. The overhead of the
831virtual-array access protocol is very small when no swapping occurs.
832
833A virtual array can be specified to be "pre-zeroed"; when this flag is set,
834never-yet-written sections of the array are set to zero before being made
835available to the caller. If this flag is not set, never-written sections
836of the array contain garbage. (This feature exists primarily because the
837equivalent logic would otherwise be needed in jdcoefct.c for progressive
838JPEG mode; we may as well make it available for possible other uses.)
839
840The first write pass on a virtual array is required to occur in top-to-bottom
841order; read passes, as well as any write passes after the first one, may
842access the array in any order. This restriction exists partly to simplify
843the virtual array control logic, and partly because some file systems may not
844support seeking beyond the current end-of-file in a temporary file. The main
845implication of this restriction is that rearrangement of rows (such as
846converting top-to-bottom data order to bottom-to-top) must be handled while
847reading data out of the virtual array, not while putting it in.
848
849
850*** Memory manager internal structure ***
851
852To isolate system dependencies as much as possible, we have broken the
853memory manager into two parts. There is a reasonably system-independent
854"front end" (jmemmgr.c) and a "back end" that contains only the code
855likely to change across systems. All of the memory management methods
856outlined above are implemented by the front end. The back end provides
857the following routines for use by the front end (none of these routines
858are known to the rest of the JPEG code):
859
860jpeg_mem_init, jpeg_mem_term system-dependent initialization/shutdown
861
862jpeg_get_small, jpeg_free_small interface to malloc and free library routines
863 (or their equivalents)
864
865jpeg_get_large, jpeg_free_large interface to FAR malloc/free in MSDOS machines;
866 else usually the same as
867 jpeg_get_small/jpeg_free_small
868
869jpeg_mem_available estimate available memory
870
871jpeg_open_backing_store create a backing-store object
872
873read_backing_store, manipulate a backing-store object
874write_backing_store,
875close_backing_store
876
877On some systems there will be more than one type of backing-store object
878(specifically, in MS-DOS a backing store file might be an area of extended
879memory as well as a disk file). jpeg_open_backing_store is responsible for
880choosing how to implement a given object. The read/write/close routines
881are method pointers in the structure that describes a given object; this
882lets them be different for different object types.
883
884It may be necessary to ensure that backing store objects are explicitly
885released upon abnormal program termination. For example, MS-DOS won't free
886extended memory by itself. To support this, we will expect the main program
887or surrounding application to arrange to call self_destruct (typically via
888jpeg_destroy) upon abnormal termination. This may require a SIGINT signal
889handler or equivalent. We don't want to have the back end module install its
890own signal handler, because that would pre-empt the surrounding application's
891ability to control signal handling.
892
893The IJG distribution includes several memory manager back end implementations.
894Usually the same back end should be suitable for all applications on a given
895system, but it is possible for an application to supply its own back end at
896need.
897
898
899*** Implications of DNL marker ***
900
901Some JPEG files may use a DNL marker to postpone definition of the image
902height (this would be useful for a fax-like scanner's output, for instance).
903In these files the SOF marker claims the image height is 0, and you only
904find out the true image height at the end of the first scan.
905
906We could read these files as follows:
9071. Upon seeing zero image height, replace it by 65535 (the maximum allowed).
9082. When the DNL is found, update the image height in the global image
909 descriptor.
910This implies that control modules must avoid making copies of the image
911height, and must re-test for termination after each MCU row. This would
912be easy enough to do.
913
914In cases where image-size data structures are allocated, this approach will
915result in very inefficient use of virtual memory or much-larger-than-necessary
916temporary files. This seems acceptable for something that probably won't be a
917mainstream usage. People might have to forgo use of memory-hogging options
918(such as two-pass color quantization or noninterleaved JPEG files) if they
919want efficient conversion of such files. (One could improve efficiency by
920demanding a user-supplied upper bound for the height, less than 65536; in most
921cases it could be much less.)
922
923The standard also permits the SOF marker to overestimate the image height,
924with a DNL to give the true, smaller height at the end of the first scan.
925This would solve the space problems if the overestimate wasn't too great.
926However, it implies that you don't even know whether DNL will be used.
927
928This leads to a couple of very serious objections:
9291. Testing for a DNL marker must occur in the inner loop of the decompressor's
930 Huffman decoder; this implies a speed penalty whether the feature is used
931 or not.
9322. There is no way to hide the last-minute change in image height from an
933 application using the decoder. Thus *every* application using the IJG
934 library would suffer a complexity penalty whether it cared about DNL or
935 not.
936We currently do not support DNL because of these problems.
937
938A different approach is to insist that DNL-using files be preprocessed by a
939separate program that reads ahead to the DNL, then goes back and fixes the SOF
940marker. This is a much simpler solution and is probably far more efficient.
941Even if one wants piped input, buffering the first scan of the JPEG file needs
942a lot smaller temp file than is implied by the maximum-height method. For
943this approach we'd simply treat DNL as a no-op in the decompressor (at most,
944check that it matches the SOF image height).
945
946We will not worry about making the compressor capable of outputting DNL.
947Something similar to the first scheme above could be applied if anyone ever
948wants to make that work.