Low power decoding of BCH codes

Low power decoding of error control codes is desirable not only for hand-held devices but also for central office equipments. Based on the studies of real-life ASICs, this paper first analyzes power consumption in each step of the popular syndrome-based decoding of BCH codes. It identifies Chien search, the most commonly used procedure in decoding, as the most power consuming operation. This paper further develops a low power decoding technique that tackles the power issues of the Chien search. The proposed technique is effective in power reduction and simple to implement.