Reliable diversity architecture for a mobile dtv system

An apparatus for decoding a digital data stream, comprising:

• a first subcore, that processes a first stream of digital data producing a first processed stream of digital data;
• a second subcore, that processes a second stream of digital data producing a second processed stream of digital data;
• a stagger multiplexer, that generates a combined stream of digital data from the first and second processed streams of digital data;
• and
• a stagger demultiplexer, that processes the combined stream of digital data to generate a first stream and a second stream of extrinsic digital data;
• wherein the first subcore further processes the first stream of extrinsic digital data to output a third digital data stream, the second subcore further processes the second stream of extrinsic digital data to output a fourth digital data stream, and the first and third streams are provided to a first subcore of a subsequent forward error correction core of the plurality of forward error correction cores and the second and fourth streams are provided to a second subcore of the subsequent forward error correction core.

A method for receiving a digital data stream, the digital data stream comprising alternating groups of information blocks and groups of parity blocks, each group of information blocks including a plurality of information blocks and each group of parity blocks including a plurality of parity blocks, the method comprising:

• demodulating, in a demodulator, the digital data stream producing a demodulated digital data stream;
• compensating, with an equalizer, the demodulated digital data stream for distortions producing a compensated digital data stream;
• generating, with a delay buffer, a first stream of digital data representing the compensated digital data stream and a second stream of digital data representing the compensated digital data stream delayed for a predetermined delay period;
• processing, with a forward error correction block, the first and second streams of digital data to generate an error corrected stream of digital data;
• transmitting, the error corrected stream of digital data for display.