A low-power self-timed Viterbi decoder

Viterbi decoders are used for decoding data encoded using convolutional forward error correction codes or data that suffers from inter-symbol interference. They occur in a large proportion of digital transmission and digital recording systems, including digital mobile telephony and digital TV broadcast, CD-ROM and magnetic disk reading. This paper describes a design for a self-timed Viterbi decoder The new design is based upon serial, unary arithmetic for the manipulation and storage of metrics. In the trace-back system, multiple concurrent trace-backs may be running and trace-backs are terminated as soon as they cease to be useful. The new architecture occupies between 29% and 23% less area than a selection of synchronous implementations with the same design parameters which use the same process and cell-library.