A new survivor memory management method in Viterbi decoders

In this paper, we propose a new survivor memory management method called the trace-delete method (TDM). Hardware (H/W) realization of the proposed algorithm for VLSI implementation is considered. Comparison of the TDM with the trace-back method (TBM) is also provided in terms of latency, the number of memory elements, and the requirements of control logic. The main advantages of the proposed method are short latency and less requirements on additional control logic. The performance is also evaluated when the method is applied to the Grand Alliance HDTV system.