AN2407
Rev. 1, 12/2004
Freescale Semiconductor
Application Note
Reed Solomon Encoder/Decoder on
the StarCore™ SC140/SC1400 Cores,
With Extended Examples
By Jasmin Oz and Assaf Naor
CONTENTS
This application note describes the implementation of the Reed-
Solomon error-control codes on the StarCore™ SC140 DSP
core. Reed-Solomon codes are the preferred error-control
coding procedures in a wide range of applications, such as
ADSL, digital cellular phones, storage devices, and deep-space
communications. Their popularity originates from their strong
capability to correct both random and burst errors.
1
2
Basics of Forward Error Correction (FEC) .............2
Theory ..................................................................... 3
2.1 Galois Fields ........................................................... 3
2.2 Reed-Solomon Codes ..............................................6
2.3 Error-Correcting Performance of
Reed-Solomon Codes ..............................................9
3
4
SC140 Core Overview ..........................................10
Implementation on the SC140 Core.......................12
The current trend for improving DSP-processing speed is to
place multiple processor units on a single chip with an
architecture that supports parallel execution. The StarCore
SC140 family of DSPs exemplifies this trend. It has four data-
arithmetic units (DALUs) and two address-generation units
(AGUs). Code implementation for these processors should
capitalize on their capabilities. This document describes the
implementation of the Reed-Solomon encoder and decoder on
the SC140 core. The document begins with a basic theoretical
background on the Reed-Solomon algorithm and then discusses
the implementation of the encoder and decoder. Little or no
background on the subject is required.
4.1 Polynomial Evaluation Over GF(256) .................. 13
4.2 MAC Instructions Over Galois Fields ..................14
4.3 Look-up Tables .....................................................14
4.4 Lowest Cycle Count Limit for Polynomial
Evaluation .............................................................15
4.5 Cycle Count of the Reed-Solomon Routines ........16
5
6
7
Results................................................................... 17
Summary ............................................................... 19
References .............................................................19
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