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Abstract

A variable-length decoder is disclosed in which a received variable-word-length encoded bit stream is input to a buffer (102) and read out in parallel sequences equal in length to the maximum length codeword. These sequences are read into cascaded latches (105, 107). The cascaded sequences in both latches are input to a barrel shifter (109) which provides from its multi-bit input, a sliding decoding window to a table-lookup memory device (112). A control signal directly shifts the position of the decoding window of the barrel shifter as each codeword is detected. To detect each codeword, the initial bits in the decoding window are compared with the codeword entries in the table-lookup memory. When a codeword is detected, the corresponding stored codeword length is accumulated (120) with previously accumulated codeword lengths to produce the control signal which directly shifts the decoding window by the number of bits in the just decoded word. When all the bits in the first latch have been decoded, the next bit sequence in the buffer is input to the second latch while the previous bit sequence in the second latch is transferred to the first latch. The decoding window is then adjusted to the beginning of the next undecoded sequence.

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