{
  "aliases": [
    "soft decoding"
  ],
  "note": "For NAND, comparisons at several reference voltages can supply that information; simply repeating an identical decision does not define soft decoding.",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "Additional sensing, transfers and decoding can add latency; the precise recovery sequence is implementation-dependent.",
      "citationIds": [
        "zhao2012"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "ldpc",
    "log-likelihood-ratio",
    "read-retry",
    "nand-flash"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "slug": "soft-decision-decoding",
  "term": "Soft-decision decoding",
  "definition": "Soft-decision decoding uses reliability information about observed symbols rather than only their hard symbol decisions.",
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "wang2011",
      "title": "Wang, Courtade, Shankar and Wesel. Soft Information for LDPC Decoding in Flash: Mutual-Information Optimized Quantization. IEEE GLOBECOM 2011, sections II-IV.",
      "url": "https://www.seas.ucla.edu/csl/files/publications/Jiadong_GC2011.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-11"
    },
    {
      "id": "zhao2012",
      "title": "Zhao, Dong, Sun, Zheng and Zhang. Reducing latency overhead caused by using LDPC codes in NAND flash memory. EURASIP JASP 2012:203. DOI: 10.1186/1687-6180-2012-203.",
      "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1687-6180-2012-203",
      "accessed": "2026-10-11"
    },
    {
      "id": "hesela-ldpc",
      "title": "Hesela: LDPC in NAND, the read cost of confidence",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/ldpc-soft-decoding-read-cost/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-11"
    }
  ]
}