Abstract - This survey paper intends to provide a comprehensive coverage of the techniques that are pertinent to the processor-based implementation of H.264/AVC video codec, particularly on DSP. Most of this paper is devoted to the computationally efficient algorithms, or the fast algorithms. Fast algorithms for motion estimation, intra-prediction and mode decision are described to reduce the computational complexity. In addition, in order to port the H.264/AVC codec to DSP, we also outline the basic principles of DSP code optimization.