A Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) decoder and a method for LDPC decoding are provided. The LDPC decoder receives a soft-decision input codeword block in which the probability of a bit being a “0” or a “1” is represented as a log-likelihood ratio (LLR). During LDPC decoding, a sequence of hardware logic units iteratively updates the soft-decision input codeword block until a valid codeword is found or a maximum number of decoding iterations is reached. Each hardware logic unit comprises a check node (CN) update logic unit and a variable node (VN) update logic unit. The CN update logic units are coupled via a closed CN path, and the VN update logic units are coupled via a closed VN path. Aspects of this LDPC decoder alleviate the global routing and energy efficiency challenges of traditional LDPC decoders, to enable multi-rate, multi-Gb/s decoding without compromising error correction performance in next-generation systems and future CMOS technology nodes.