Semiconductor device using multi-level signaling and coding method thereof

A semiconductor device comprising:

• a transmitter configured to transmit a multi-level signal;
• and
• a receiver configured to receive the multi-level signal,
• wherein the transmitter is configured to:
• generate a plurality of codewords by adding a corresponding plurality of different sets of at least one shaping parity bit to user data,
• generate a plurality of candidate encoded data by performing an encoding operation on the plurality of codewords,
• calculate metric values based on the plurality of candidate encoded data using a metric operation equation,
• select encoded data from the plurality of candidate encoded data based on the metric values, and
• convert the encoded data into the multi-level signal, and
• wherein the receiver is configured to restore the multi-level signal to the encoded data, decode a codeword corresponding to the encoded data from the encoded data, and restore the user data from the codeword.

A coding method for a semiconductor device supporting a multi-level signaling system, the method comprising:

• generating a plurality of codewords by adding a plurality of different sets of at least one shaping parity bit to user data;
• generating a plurality of candidate encoded data by performing an encoding operation on the plurality of codewords;
• calculating metric values based on the plurality of candidate encoded data using a metric operation equation;
• and
• selecting encoded data from the plurality of candidate encoded data based on the metric values.