In this paper, we designed a motion estimator for MPEG-2 video coder using VHDL. Motion estimation is indispensable for encoding MPEG 2 video. Motion estimation takes over 50% computation power of video encoding 37 frames per second and is suitable for real-time processing. The number of data accesses for computation is fewer than 2 times compared with that of old one. This makes slower memory module available. We minimize input pins to migrate input data through PEs. This processor can compute various motio estimation modes at one calculation that is supported by MPEG-2 video standard. Also independent control architecture makes this processor a single processor or a sub module in amultimedia chip.