1. A method for generating soft information for a variable node from a check node to decode a parity check code, wherein the check node is associated with other co-constraint nodes, the method comprising: accessing soft information from the co-constraint nodes; determining a first component-wise minimum and a second component-wise minimum based on the soft information; forming combinations of the first component-wise minimum and the second component-wise minimum; and computing soft information for the variable node based on the combinations.