Burst error corrector

A codeword generator for generating electrical signals corresponding to a codeword, the codeword generator comprising:

• means for receiving data bytes and outputting electrical signals corresponding to the received data bytes as a first component of the codeword;
• a CRC generator which uses the received data bytes to generate electrical signals corresponding to m number of cyclical redundancy bytes as a second component of the codeword;
• and
• an ECC generator which uses the received data bytes and the cyclical redundancy bytes to generate electrical signals corresponding to a plurality of error correction bytes as a third component of the codeword, the ECC generator configured to group the data bytes and the m number of CRC bytes into L number of interleaves, wherein L number of the plurality of error correction bytes are such that a sum of bytes in a corresponding interleave for a codeword is zero, and wherein the error correction bytes generated by the ECC generator constitute a plurality of roots of the codeword.

A method of correcting errors in a digital data stream retrieved from a disk drive storage device, the method comprising:

• receiving data bytes from the disk drive storage device and outputting the data bytes as a first component of a codeword;
• using the received data bytes to generate electrical signals corresponding to m number of cyclical redundancy (CRC) bytes as a second component of the codeword;
• and
• grouping the data bytes and the m number of CRC bytes into L number of interleaves;
• using the grouped data bytes and CRC bytes to generate electrical signals corresponding to a plurality of error correction bytes, wherein L number of the plurality of error correction bytes are such that a sum of bytes in a corresponding interleave for a codeword is zero, and wherein the error correction bytes constitute a plurality of roots of the codeword.

An error correction method for detecting an error burst in a received codeword, the method comprising:

• generating check CRC bytes over data bytes of the codeword;
• using the data bytes of the codeword and CRC bytes of the codeword to generate syndromes and an error pattern;
• using the syndromes to determine the beginning of an error burst in the codeword and using the error pattern to correct the codeword;
• using the error pattern and the check CRC bytes to verify that the codeword is correctable.