1. A method for Error Correction Code (ECC) encoding, comprising: receiving, by an ECC encoder in a memory controller, data to be encoded; and encoding, by the ECC encoder, the data to produce a composite code word that comprises multiple component code words, wherein each component code word in at least a subset of the component code words is encoded in accordance with a respective component code and has at least one respective bit in common with each of the other component code words.