1. A decoder system, comprising: a State Metric Update unit including a state metric memory and a cascaded Add/Compare/Select (ACS) unit, wherein the cascaded ACS unit comprises a plurality of serially coupled ACS stages for performing a plurality of ACS operations in conjunction with the state metric memory, wherein an ACS stage is operable to identify a plurality of path decisions and communicate the identified path decisions to a next ACS stage coupled thereto; and a Traceback unit for storing a set of accumulated path decisions in a traceback memory associated therewith, and performing a traceback on the set of accumulated path decisions, wherein an ACS data path is widened to receive a Yamamoto quality flag for determining whether an encoded frame contains an error or for use in subsequent quality processing.