Wireless terminal baseband processor high speed turbo decoding module

A method for performing turbo decoding operations in a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver of a wireless terminal, the method comprising:

• receiving a baseband RX signal;
• producing a set of Incremental Redundancy (IR) samples from the baseband RX signal;
• storing the set of IR samples in a memory containing a plurality of sets of IR samples;
• retrieving at least one of the plurality of sets of IR samples from the memory;
• forming a turbo code word from the at least one set of IR samples;
• and
• decoding the turbo code word to produce inbound data, the decoding including:
• maintaining a set of metrics while turbo decoding the turbo code word;
• identifying a chosen metric of the set of metrics;
• and
• normalizing each other metric of the set of metrics based upon the chosen metric.

A method for performing turbo decoding operations in a baseband processing module of an Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver of a wireless terminal, the method comprising:

• receiving a baseband RX signal;
• producing a set of Incremental Redundancy (IR) samples from the baseband RX signal;
• forming a first turbo code word from a part of the set of IR samples, the first turbo code word corresponding to a first portion of a Media Access Control (MAC) packet;
• performing a set number of turbo decoding operations on the first turbo code word;
• forming a second turbo code word from a remaining part of the set of IR samples, the second turbo code word corresponding to a second portion of the MAC packet;
• performing at least one initial turbo decoding operation on the second turbo code word;
• determining whether the MAC packet has been produced error free after the at least one initial turbo decoding operation performed on the second turbo code word;
• when the at least one initial turbo decoding operation performed on the second turbo code word does not produce the MAC packet error free, performing at least one additional turbo decoding operation on the second turbo code word;
• and
• when the at least one initial turbo decoding operation on the second turbo code word produces the MAC packet error free, terminating turbo decoding operations on the second turbo code word prior to performing a remaining set number of turbo decoding operations on the second turbo code word.