Our goal is to perform Reed Solomon (RS) data encoding using a Texas Instruments TMS320C54x DSP chip.  RS codes are essential to error control codes in digital communication systems.  There are many different methods to implement a RS encoder/decoder. 

RS encoding is based on polynomial evaluation.  Input data is sampled and evaluated by a generator polynomial to create several check parity bits.  The parity bits and the data bits are transmitted through a channel into a receiver.  During transmission, noise will almost always corrupt a few of the data bits.  The parity bits allows the RS decoder to re-evaluate the data stream with the generator polynomial and correct any data bits that were corrupted.  As with most things in the real world, RS encoding is not a full proof method to keep data transmission error free: RS codes do have their limits. 

RS codes are very popular with space communications.  NASA's Voyager and Galileo space probes are a few famous RS applications in space. 

RS codes are also found in many consumer applications.  CD, DVD, and HDTV are a few of the more popular implementations.

• A newly modified ASM program has been uploaded. This version fixes the bug of not being able to directly run the code from Code Explorer without stepping through the code.
• The final report is completed and accessible from the above link or by clicking here.
• All sections of this web site should be in working order now.

• The C54x ASM code has been tested and verified.  No noticeable bugs were found.  At this moment we beleive all ASM coding has been completed.
• Web pages for Fun with RS Codes and References have been created.  Stay tuned for more.

• Our C code conversion into C54x ASM of the Reed Solomon Encoder is complete.  Now the testing and optimization phase is to begin.  We will compare the DSP encoder with the compiled C code version.

• Web Page Abstract is up.
• We have selected all of our general RS encoding parameters.
• We have successfully located a working C++ model.
• The next step is to transfer the encoder code into C54x ASM code.