Abstract: In accordance with the present invention, a multi-bit CRC character is created by generating a most significant bit (MSB) portion and a least significant bit (LSB) portion in parallel and then combining the MSB and LSB portions to provide the CRC character. This is accomplished by first XORing a multi-bit input character and a current multi-bit CRC high value character stored in a CRC high value latch. The result of this initial XOR operation serves as the input to a high value look-up table which maps the input to a corresponding high value look-up table output character. The value look-up table output character is XORed with a current multi-bit CRC low value character stored in a CRC low value latch to generate an updated CRC high value character. In parallel with the generation of the updated CRC high value character, the result of the initial XOR operation is also provided as the input to a low value look-up table which maps the input to a corresponding updated CRC low value character.