Patent ID: 8103943

Claim:
A method for decoding a (p,k) Reed-Solomon (RS) codeword having p n-valued symbols with n>2 and n being an integer, k of the p n-valued symbols being information symbols with p>1 and k>1, comprising evaluating a predetermined expression implemented on a processor, which contains at least one n-valued logic function defined by a truth table that determines an n-valued output symbol based on at least a first and a second n-valued input symbol and includes one or more n-valued symbols of the (p,k) Reed-Solomon (RS) codeword that are not in error as variables of which at least one is multiplied with an n-valued factor not being 0 or 1 and which generates a corrected n-valued symbol in the codeword, wherein each symbol is represented by a signal and wherein the predetermined expression is defined by at least one of a plurality of n-valued check symbol expressions with fixed n-valued coefficients and each n-valued check symbol expression in the plurality of n-valued check symbol expressions determines a value of an n-valued check symbol in the Reed-Solomon (RS) codeword.