Patent ID: 7237181

Claim:
An apparatus used for performing decoding operations, said apparatus comprising: a soft input-soft output signal processing unit for processing input values to be decoded, said soft input-soft output signal processing unit including a feedback information input for receiving feedback information and a soft information value output for outputting information values generated by said soft input-soft output signal processing unit; an iterative decoder for performing message passing decoder operations using an internal message passing decoder loop, said iterative decoder having a soft information value input and a feedback information output, said soft information value input being coupled to said soft information value output of said soft input-soft output signal processing unit, said feedback information output being coupled to said feedback information input of said soft input-soft output signal processing unit; means for interrupting, prior to completion of decoding a set of input data values supplied to said soft input-soft output signal processing unit, communication in an outer communication loop including said soft input-soft output signal processing unit and said iterative decoder, said means for interrupting stopping the communication of at least one of i) feedback information from said iterative decoder to said soft input-soft output decoder and ii) information values from said soft input-soft output signal processing unit to said iterative decoder; and means for re-initializing at least one of the messages used in said message passing iterative decoder while decoding said set of input data values.