Loosely coupled memory-based decoding architecture for low density parity check codes

Parallel decoding is required for low density parity check (LDPC) codes to achieve high decoding throughput, but it suffers from a large set of registers and complex interconnections due to randomly located 1´s in the sparse parity check matrix. This paper proposes a new LDPC decoding architecture to reduce registers and alleviate complex interconnections. To reduce the number of messages to be exchanged among processing units (PUs), two data flows that can be loosely coupled are developed by allowing duplicated operations. In addition, intermediate values are grouped and stored into local storages each of which is accessed by only one PU. In order to save area, local storages are implemented using memories instead of registers. A partially parallel architecture is proposed to promote the memory usage and an efficient algorithm that schedules the processing order of the partially parallel architecture is also proposed to reduce the overall processing time by overlapping operations. To verify the proposed architecture, a 1024 bit rate-1/2 LDPC decoder is implemented using a 0.18-μm CMOS process. The decoder runs correctly at the frequency of 200 MHz, which enables almost 1 Gbps decoding throughput. Since the proposed decoder occupies an area of 10.08 mm², it is less than one fifth of area compared to the previous architecture.