
Page 2 of 24
PS4011C-0200
Advanced Hardware Architectures, Inc.
1.2.1
DEFINITION OF CORRECTION TERMS
*
** An erasure is detected by a parity detector or a signal dropout detector. The presence of an erasure is indicated
by asserting the ERASE signal when the erased byte is clocked into the AHA4011C.
For every 2 check bytes, the AHA4011C can correct either 2 erasures or 1 error.
2.0
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
This section describes an architectural
overview of the chip and its many functions,
features and operations. The block diagram for the
chip shows the Reed-Solomon ECC module, the
Input and Output Buffers, and their associated
control. All input and output data are clocked on the
rising edge of CLK.
2.1
FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW
The AHA4011C Reed-Solomon codec
(coder/decoder) is a member of the AHA PerFEC
family of high speed forward error correction (FEC)
devices. This single chip, three-layer metal, CMOS
device can operate in encode, decode or pass-
through modes.
The ECC core implements a full error
correcting Reed-Solomon decoder. This code is
capable of correcting up to 10 (t
=
10) byte-errors or
20 (t
=
10) erasures in a RS block.
The ECC core has three phases of operation:
Data In, Calculation and Data Out. Data to be
processed is first input into a single ported Input
Buffer using a control signal DSIN. ECC core
arbitrates for the input data out of the Input Buffer.
ECC core has access to the Input Buffer on clock
edges where DSIN is not asserted.
Each block is processed within the ECC core
and calculations are made. The entire block is
processed through the ECC core, and transferred
into the Output Buffer. The device asserts RDYON
signal and holds active until the Output Buffer is
completely emptied.
The ECC core loads the Output Buffer in
reverse order for either operation. Data may be
strobed out of the device in forward or reverse order.
If forward order is desired, output data cannot be
strobed out of the device until the entire block has
been loaded into the Output Buffer.
TERM
NAME
(other references)
DEFINITION
RANGE
(number of bytes)
K
Message Length (user
data or message bytes)
Number of user data symbols in one message
block. Size of a symbol in AHA4011C is 8-bits.
Message length is K
=
N
R. The first message
byte is referred to as X
K
1
; the last message byte is
X
0
.
Symbols appended to the user data to detect and
correct errors. The number of check symbols
required in a system is R
≥
E
+
2e.* The first check
symbol is referred to as Y
R
1
; the last check
symbol is Y
0
.
Sum of message and check symbols. N
=
K
+
R.
1 through 253
(1, 2, 3, 4 . . . 253)
R
Check Symbols
(parity or redundancy)
2 through 20 in
increments of 1
(2, 3, 4 . . . 20)
N
Codeword Length
(block length)
3 through 255
(3, 4, 5, 6 . . . 255)
1 through 10
(1, 2, 3 . . . 10)
t
Error Corrections
Maximum number of error corrections performed
by the device. The value is t = Integer
The threshold limit to determine uncorrectability
of a Codeword and the number of check bytes
allocated for correction-only purposes (not for
detection).
An error is defined as an erroneous byte whose
correct value and position within the message
block are both unknown.
An erasure is defined as an error whose position is
known within the message block.**
A measure of the burden of correction being
placed on the capabilities of the device for that
message block. The value G
=
2e
+
E.
.
P
Error Threshold
2 through 20
(2, 3, 4 . . . 20)
e
Number of Errors
0 through N
E
Number of Erasures
0 through N
G
Burden of Correction
0 through R
N
K
–
2