Abstract: A burst error counting system determines for each sector-long error pattern a unique, minimum number of burst errors by (i) specifying, based on the statistical operation of the system, a maximum burst length, L; (ii) determining the location in the error pattern of a first erroneous bit, b.sub.FIRST ; (iii) associating the next L-1 bits with b.sub.FIRST ; (iv) incrementing a burst counter; (v) searching for a next b.sub.FIRST in the remaining bits of the error pattern; and (vi) repeating iii-v. The system may also store the position, that is, bit count, of these b.sub.FIRST 's. Each time the burst error count is incremented, the system compares the count to a predetermined burst error threshold, which is equal to or less than the maximum number of burst errors that can be expected in a sector that is not corrupted to a point at which error correction may produce an incorrect result.

Abstract: A pipelined error correction circuit iteratively determines syndromes, error locator and evaluator equations, and error locations and associated error values for received Reed-Solomon code words. The circuit includes a plurality of Galois Field multiplying circuits which use a minimum number of circiut elements to generate first and second products. Each Galois Field multiplying circuit includes a first GF multiplier which multiplies one of two input signals in each of two time intervals by a first value to produce a first product. The circuit includes a second GF multiplier which further multiplies one of the first products by a second value to generate a second product. The first and second products are then applied to the first GF multiplier as next input signals. The multiplying circuit minimizes the elements required to generate two products by using a first, relatively complex multiplier for both the first and second products and then a second relatively simple multiplier to generate the second product.