Method and system for multiple column syndrome generation

The present invention relates to optical media, and more particularly to syndrome generation in decoding data from an optical medium. The present invention provides a method and system for syndrome generation for data from an optical media. The method includes reading data bytes for a plurality of columns of a row of the data; reading a plurality of partial syndromes from a memory, each of the plurality of partial syndromes corresponding to one of the plurality of columns; updating each of the plurality of partial syndromes with the data byte of the corresponding column; and writing the plurality of updated partial syndromes into the memory. The present invention obtains data bytes for multiple columns at one time. Syndrome generation is then performed for each column, with the partial syndromes for each column stored in a memory. As the data bytes of subsequent rows of data for multiple columns are obtained, the partial syndromes for each column are read from the memory and loaded into a syndrome generation logic, thus updating the partial syndrome for each column. The updated syndromes are written back into the memory. This continues until the syndromes for all of the rows for the multiple columns have been generated. By storing partial syndromes in a memory, multiple sets of syndrome generation logic is not needed to simultaneously process multiple columns of data bytes, thus avoiding a space penalty for the controller. Since multiple columns are read at one time, fewer clock cycles are required to access the data bytes, saving time. Therefore, clock cycle penalties are decreased while also avoiding a space penalty for the controller.