1. A programmable motion estimation module for processing pixel values from a sequence of digital images, said programmable motion estimation module comprising: a programmable microcontroller; a scalar register file coupled to said programmable microcontroller, said scalar register file comprising a plurality of scalar registers; a control register file coupled to said programmable microcontroller, said control register file comprising a plurality of control registers; a crossbar logic unit coupled to the control register file and responsive to one or more control registers of the plurality of control registers; a direct memory access unit coupled to the control register file and responsive to one or more control registers of the plurality of control registers; a memory subsystem, responsive to the direct memory access unit, for storing pixel values, said memory subsystem having an image data input for receiving pixel values; a plurality of processing elements each with plurality of inputs and at least one output coupled to the scalar register file; and a crossbar switch operable to distribute pixel values stored in the memory subsystem to at least one input of the plurality of inputs of the processing elements, said crossbar switch responsive to the crossbar logic unit.