Patent ID: 8847803

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of modulator stages configured to produce a plurality of output data words of a resolution-reduced serial output digital data stream through quantization and quantization noise spectral distribution of a plurality of input data words obtained from a serial input digital data stream, the modulator stages being configured as a linear array arranged in a temporal sequence order common to that in which the input data words are obtained from the input digital data stream, the modulator stages being configured further to accept the input data words and to provide the output data words in corresponding parallel data transfer operations, each modulator stage comprising: an input bus constructed to accept an input data word at a position among the parallel input data words that corresponds with the position in the temporal sequence order of the modulator stage; an output bus constructed to output an output data word at the position among the parallel output data words that corresponds with the position in the temporal sequence order of the modulator stage; and a processing circuit communicatively interposed between the input bus and the output bus and configured to process the input data word with one or more feedback words in accordance with a specified quantization noise spectral distribution to produce the output data word and an error word; and a feedback distribution bus communicatively coupled across the modulator stages and constructed to convey the error word produced by the processing circuit in each of the modulator stages to one or more of the modulator stages at other positions in the temporal sequence order whereat the error word is utilized as one of the feedback words to effect the specified quantization noise spectral distribution.