Efficient Reed-Solomon decoder with adaptive error-correcting capability

Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are widely used as error-correcting codes in digital communication and storage systems. This paper proposes an efficient architecture for RS decoder with adaptive error-correcting capability. This decoder can be employed to enable complexity-performance tradeoff and ensure data reliability in applications with time-varying channel condition, such as wireless communications. Specifically, the proposed decoder adopts the low-complexity Chase (LCC) algebraic soft-decision decoding algorithm. This algorithm tests 2^η vectors, and larger η leads to higher error-correcting capability. The proposed decoder is capable of implementing LCC decoding with variable η. In addition, the decoder hardware units are reused to incorporate hard-decision decoding (HDD). Detailed hardware requirement and latency analysis is provided for a (255, 239) RS code. Compared to the LCC decoder for η = 3 only, the adaptive RS decoder that can take care of both the HDD and LCC decoding with η ∈ {3, 4, 5} only has 1% area overhead.