Error correction method including erasure correction, and apparatus therefor

An error correction apparatus comprising:

• first generation means for generating a syndrome polynomial for a code to be corrected;
• second generation means for generating an erasure position polynomial for the code to be corrected;
• first arithmetic operation means for calculating partial polynomials corresponding to portions, which have degrees smaller by at least 2 than a designed distance of the code, of a product of the syndrome polynomial and the erasure position polynomial respectively generated by said first and second generation means;
• multiplication means for sequentially multiplying coefficients of the partial polynomials and the erasure position polynomials with a power of a primitive element of the code, power exponents being determined in units of coefficients;
• addition means for sequentially calculating sums of predetermined combinations of products every time said multiplication means executes the multiplication;
• second arithmetic operation means for sequentially executing a plurality of predetermined arithmetic and logic operations using the sums;
• selection means for selecting a divisor and a dividend, in accordance with the number of erasures and positions of the erasures included in the code, from among a plurality of arithmetic operations results from said second arithmetic operation means;
• division means for executing a division using the divisor and dividend selected by said selection means;
• discrimination means for discriminating, based on the arithmetic operation results from said second arithmetic operation means, whether or not each of positions of the code is an error portion;
• and
• correction means for correcting values of the code at the positions determined to be the error positions and at erasure positions on the basis of the division result from said division means.

An error correction method comprising the steps of:

• generating a syndrome polynomial for a code to be corrected;
• generating an erasure position polynomial for the code to be corrected;
• calculating partial polynomials corresponding to portions, which have degrees smaller by at least 2 than a designated distance of the code, of a product of the generated syndrome polynomial and the generated erasure position polynomial;
• calculating a value at an error position of a polynomial obtained by altering a degree of the erasure position polynomial;
• calculating an error value of a single error by dividing the coefficients of the partial polynomials with the calculated value;
• determining error positions using the coefficients of the partial polynomials;
• and
• correcting values of the code at the positions determined to be error positions by using the calculated error value.

An error correction apparatus comprising:

• first generation means for generating a syndrome polynomial for a code to be corrected;
• second generation means for generating an erasure position polynomial for the code to be corrected;
• first arithmetic operation means for calculating partial polynomials corresponding to portions, which have degrees smaller by at least 2 than a designed distance of the code, of a product of the syndrome polynomial and the erasure position polynomial respectively generated by said first and second generation means;
• second arithmetic operation means for calculating a value at an error position of a polynomial obtained by altering a degree of the erasure position polynomial;
• third arithmetic operation means for calculating an error value of a single error by dividing the coefficients of the partial polynomials calculated by said first arithmetic operation means with the calculated value calculated by said second arithmetic operation means;
• position determination means for determining error positions using the coefficients of the partial polynomials;
• and
• correcting means for correcting values of the code at the positions determined to be the error positions by using the calculated error value.