We propose a highly Integrated motion estimation processor (MEP) for efficient video compression in an SoC platform. When compressing video by the standards like MPEG-4 and H.263, the macroblock related functions motion compensation. mode decision, motion vector prediction, and motion vector difference calculation require the frequent intervention of MCU. Thus the proposed MEP incorporates those functions with the motion estimation capability to reduce the number of interrupts to MCU, which can lead to a highly efficient SoC system. For low-power consumption, the proposed MEP can prevent the temporally static area from motion estimation or can skip the half-pel motion estimation for those macroblocks whose modes are decided as INTRA.