MDS array codes for correcting a single criss-cross error

We present a family of Maximum-Distance Separable (MDS) array codes of size (p - 1) × (p - 1), p a prime number, and minimum criss-cross distance 3, i.e., the code is capable of correcting any row or column in error, without a priori knowledge of what type of error occurred. The complexity of the encoding and decoding algorithms is lower than that of known codes with the same error-correcting power, since our algorithms are based on exclusive-OR operations over lines of different slopes, as opposed to algebraic operations over a finite field. We also provide efficient encoding and decoding algorithms for errors and erasures.