Patent ID: 8040981

Claim:
A circuit for detecting a plurality of symbols transmitted from multiple transmitting antennas to multiple receiving antennas, wherein the transmitting antennas include at least a first and a second transmitting antenna, the circuit comprising: a plurality of respective distance-blocks corresponding to the transmitting antennas, each including at least one sub-block, each sub-block receiving an input candidate for the corresponding transmitting antenna, wherein the sub-block determines partial distances of pairings of the candidate and one of a plurality of symbols in a constellation, and the sub-block determines the partial distance of each pairing from a partial distance of the candidate and a plurality of signals received at the receiving antennas; at least one respective selector corresponding to all but the second transmitting antenna, wherein each respective selector uses a plurality of bins having respective ranges of values of the partial distances, the respective selector assigns each pairing for each candidate of the transmitting antenna that corresponds to the respective selector to the bin having the respective range that includes the partial distance of the pairing, and the respective selector selects each candidate from one or more of the bins having ranges that are smallest of the ranges of all the bins; and an identifier block corresponding to the second transmitting antenna, the identifier block coupled to the respective distance-block corresponding to the second transmitting antenna for receiving the pairings for each candidate for the second transmitting antenna, wherein the identifier block selects as a final candidate, one of the pairings having the smallest partial distance.