This paper presents a new implementation of a 2D wavelet transform (2D-WT) in a VLSI circuit for real-time digital signal processing. The parallel algorithm of the 2D-WT used for designing and implementing this new architecture enhances the performance of computations. The proposed multi-elementary processor architecture of the 2D-WT yields a very flexible hardware configuration. Relative to other methods, this approach offers a high processing speed for providing the wavelet coefficients. The 2D-WT is a powerful tool for image processing and compression offering several advantages such as an increased compression ratio, an excellent quality of resulting image and a progressive method of decompression.