Patent ID: 8370727

Claim:
A method for decoding an error correction code, comprising: calculating an error syndrome of the error correction code; sequentially determining a plurality of coefficients of an error locator polynomial of the error correction code according to the error syndrome; when a new coefficient of the error locator polynomial is determined as a newly-determined coefficient, determining whether the newly-determined coefficient is equal to zero; when the newly-determined coefficient is equal to zero and is of an order greater than or equal to 2, building a roughly-estimated error locator polynomial according to a plurality of low-order-term coefficients of the error locator polynomial, wherein the low-order-term coefficients are of orders lower than that of the newly-determined coefficient; and performing a Chien search to determine a plurality of roots of the roughly-estimated error locator polynomial for correction of the error correction code and thereby to speed up decoding of the error correction code.