A new algorithm for the fast computation of a 2-D discrete cosine transform（DCT） is presented. It is shown that the N×N DCT

where N=2m

can be computed using only N 1-D DCT’s

as in the conventional row-column approach. Hence the total number of multiplications for the proposed algorithm is only half of that required for the row-column approach

and is also less than that of most of other fast algorithms

while the number of additions is almost comparable to that of others.