An apparatus including a parsing circuit and a control circuit. The parsing circuit may be configured to generate a plurality of decoded syntax elements in response to (i) a serial bitstream and (ii) a control signal. The control circuit may be configured to generate the control signal in response to the plurality of decoded syntax elements. The parsing circuit may generate the plurality of decoded syntax elements by grouping syntax elements for atomic decoding such that each (i) one or more consecutive syntax elements without context information relevant to the decoding and (ii) a non-zero syntax element presented at the end of each group.