Decoding the Golden Code: A VLSI Design

The recently proposed Golden code is an optimal space-time block code for 2 times 2 multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The aim of this work is the design of a VLSI decoder for a MIMO system coded with the Golden code. The architecture is based on a rearrangement of the sphere decoding algorithm that achieves maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding performance. Compared to other approaches, the proposed solution exhibits an inherent flexibility in terms of QAM modulation size and this makes our architecture particularly suitable for adaptive modulation schemes. Relying on the flexibility of this approach two different architectures are proposed: a parametric one able to achieve high decoding throughputs (> 165 Mb/s) while keeping low overall decoder complexity (45 KGates), a flexible implementation able to dynamically adapt to the modulation scheme (4-,16-,64-QAM) retaining the low complexity and high throughput features.