Abstract: A prediction device and method for use in a Viterbi decoder is provided. The prediction device is applicable to a communication system with low bit error rate for reducing the count of accessing path memories, thereby lowering the power consumption of the system. The prediction device needs not activate the traceback modules when making a successful prediction. In other words, no access to the path memories is required. The predicted bits decoded and outputted by the decoded bit registers are the decoded bits from the Viterbi decoder. Therefore, the prediction device saves much traceback and power consumption for decoding.

Abstract: A method for detecting signal and estimating symbol timing is provided. The method is applicable to the receiver in an OFDM system. The method uses the autocorrelation of the short preamble of input signals to detect signals, and performs the coarse frequency offset compensation at the same time. Then, the end of the short preamble for the input signals is detected by the signal detection. The compensated signals are cross-correlated with the portion of the long preamble or that of guard interval together with the long preamble. In addition, the method uses the information for the end of the short preamble to find out a range of the sliding window for estimating symbol timing. In such a manner, the method can make sure of the accuracy for the symbol timing.

Abstract: A prediction device and method for use in a Viterbi decoder is provided. The prediction device is applicable to a communication system with low bit error rate for reducing the count of accessing path memories, thereby lowering the power consumption of the system. The prediction device needs not activate the traceback modules when making a successful prediction. In other words, no access to the path memories is required. The predicted bits decoded and outputted by the decode bit registers are the decoded bits from the Viterbi decoder. Therefore, the prediction device saves much traceback works and power consumption for decoding.