Patent ID: 8015477

Claim:
A Viterbi detector for converting a digital binary stream representing a partial response signal into a digital binary output representative of the partial response signal, the Viterbi detector comprising: a branch metric unit (BMU) operative to receive the digital binary stream and compute (i) at least one branch metric value and (ii) at least one first state metric value, the BMU including: a plurality of branch metric sets, each of the plurality of branch metric sets comprising a plurality of branch metrics, and a plurality of noise predictive filters, each of the plurality of noise predictive filters coupled with one of the plurality of branch metric sets; an add compare select unit (ACSU) coupled with the BMU, the ACSU operative to receive (i) the at least one branch metric value and (ii) the at least one first state metric value and to generate at least one second state metric value; and a survivor memory unit coupled with the ACSU, the survivor memory unit operative to select one of the at least one second state metric value and to generate the digital binary output therefrom.