<s>
In	O
information	O
theory	O
,	O
a	O
soft-decision	B-Error_Name
decoder	I-Error_Name
is	O
a	O
kind	O
of	O
decoding	O
methods	O
–	O
a	O
class	O
of	O
algorithm	O
used	O
to	O
decode	O
data	O
that	O
has	O
been	O
encoded	O
with	O
an	O
error	B-Error_Name
correcting	I-Error_Name
code	I-Error_Name
.	O
</s>
<s>
Whereas	O
a	O
hard-decision	B-Error_Name
decoder	I-Error_Name
operates	O
on	O
data	O
that	O
take	O
on	O
a	O
fixed	O
set	O
of	O
possible	O
values	O
(	O
typically	O
0	O
or	O
1	O
in	O
a	O
binary	O
code	O
)	O
,	O
the	O
inputs	O
to	O
a	O
soft-decision	B-Error_Name
decoder	I-Error_Name
may	O
take	O
on	O
a	O
whole	O
range	O
of	O
values	O
in-between	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Therefore	O
,	O
a	O
soft-decision	B-Error_Name
decoder	I-Error_Name
will	O
typically	O
perform	O
better	O
in	O
the	O
presence	O
of	O
corrupted	O
data	O
than	O
its	O
hard-decision	O
counterpart	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Soft-decision	B-Error_Name
decoders	I-Error_Name
are	O
often	O
used	O
in	O
Viterbi	O
decoders	O
and	O
turbo	B-Error_Name
code	I-Error_Name
decoders	O
.	O
</s>
