Abstract: A system for despreading and/or demodulating spread spectrum codes is provided. A data signal is encoded using an M-ary transmission technique, wherein predefined symbol codes are associated with a particular series of data bits. A receiver comprises a plurality of delay elements or a shift register with a plurality of taps configured to recognize one or more the predetermined symbol codes. Delayed representations of the received signal are generated and combined to produce a known output sequence, such as a string of consecutive one or consecutive zeroes, when a recognizable spread spectrum code is received. The receiver shift register may be preloaded such that recognition may occur starting with the first received chip. More than one set of taps may be coupled to the same shift register, so that more than one of the M spreading codes may be recognized by the same shift register.

Abstract: A transmitted digital VSB signal comprises a sequence of M-level symbols, where the value of M is defined by a mode control signal which is periodically multiplexed with the transmitted signal. A receiver includes an up/down counter which is reset to a zero count in response to a channel change signal and a latch responsive to the zero count of the counter for storing the next received mode control signal whose accuracy has been verified. The counter is incremented or decremented in response to each subsequently received verified mode control signal which respectively matches or does not match the stored mode control signal. Acquisition of new mode control signals is thereby relatively immune to burst noise, is effected very rapidly after a channel change and less rapidly in the absence of a channel change.