1. A 5B/6B encoder suitable for operating on source vectors having five source bits from a plurality of source vectors, the encoder operative in a first step to translate the plurality of source vectors to a plurality of six-bit vectors by appending a sixth bit having a default value to the source vectors and in a second step to generate primary six-bit coded vectors by complementation of selected one to four individual bits of selected six-bit vectors for a minority of the plurality of source vectors, wherein the coded vectors are disparity independent with a single representation or disparity dependent with a primary and an alternate representation, and wherein the alternate representation is a complement of the primary representation.