Cross-Interleaved Reed Solomon Coding

In the Compact Disc system, error correction and detection is provided by CIRC (Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code). CIRC adds to every three data bytes one redundant 'parity' byte. Reed-Solomon codes are specifically useful in combating mixtures of random and burst errors. CIRC corrects error bursts up to 3,500 bits (2.4 mm in length) and compensates for error bursts up to 12,000 bits (8.5 mm) that may be caused by minor scratches.