1. A method of calculating a syndrome using a dividend polynomial, a generator polynomial, and a pre-computed multiplication table of the products of the generator polynomial stored in the memory of a programmable computer comprising the steps of: calculating a remainder polynomial from the division of the dividend polynomial by the generator polynomial using the pre-computed multiplication table, the remainder polynomial being of lower order than the generator polynomial; calculating the syndrome using the lower-order remainder polynomial and the generator polynomial; splitting the generator polynomial into a plurality of generator sub-polynomials, the generator sub-polynomial being factors of the generator polynomial; and dividing by the plurality of generator sub-polynomials to form a plurality of remainder sub-polynomials; wherein a computation time of the step of calculating the remainder polynomial depends primarily on the order of the dividend polynomial.