14076579

Paragraph Number

130

In some embodiments, information about the “DC balance,” “balance,” or “bias” of an ECC chunk, or code word may refer to any information reflecting how similar the code word is to a known “balanced” or “biased” code word with a known or expected ratio of binary zeroes and binary ones, such as an equal number of ones and zeros. Information about the balance may include any information reflecting the relative quantities or frequencies of zero and one bits in the code word. For example, in one embodiment, information about the balance of a code word may include the mean value of bits in the code word, so that a mean value of 0.5 indicates that the code word is balanced with an equal number of binary ones and binary zeroes. In another embodiment, information about the balance of a code word may include a ratio of the number of ones to the number of zeros in the code word, so that a ratio of 1 indicates that the code word is balanced. In certain embodiments, a measurement of the “whiteness” of the code word, or its similarity to random noise, may also provide information about the balance of the code word.

Added by DJM 2 2021