The video signal processor AxPe1280V has been developed for implementation of different video coding applications according to standards like ITU-T H.261/H.263, and ISO MPEG-1/2. It consists of a RISC processor supplemented by a coprocessor for convolution-like low-level tasks. RISC and coprocessor have been implemented in a standard cell design combined with full-custom modules. The processor was fabricated in a 0.5 mCMOS technology and has a die size of 82 mm2 . It provides a peak performance of more than 1 giga arithmetic operations per second (GOPS) at 66 MHz. For processing of very computation-intensive algorithms or high data rates, several processors can be bus-connected to form a MIMD multiprocessor system.