Patent ID: 7530008

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an encoder coupled to receive input data and configured to generate corresponding codewords; and a decoder coupled to receive codewords and detect an error in the codewords; wherein each codeword comprises a plurality of b-bit portions including two or more b-bit portions that contain data, and further including a first set of b check bits and a second set of w check bits; wherein b is an integer greater than one, and wherein the first set of b check bits is used to detect a magnitude of an error in a first b-bit portion of the plurality of b-bit portions, wherein the magnitude of the error indicates whether or not an error is detected and further indicates which bits within the first b-bit portion are in error, and wherein the second set of w check bits is used to locate which one of the plurality of b-bit portions is the first b-bit portion containing the error, wherein w is an integer greater than zero and less than b; wherein the encoder is configured to generate the first set of b check bits responsive to the plurality of b-bit portions of the codeword excluding the b-bit portion that stores the first set of b check bits, and wherein the encoder is configured to generate the second set of w check bits for a given codeword responsive to the data in the codeword; and wherein the decoder is configured to decode the first set of b check bits and the codeword to detect and error and the magnitude of the error, and wherein the decoder is configured to decode the second set of w check bits and the data in the code word to locate the first b-bit portion containing the error.