A decoding system for use with different degree parity constraint nodes and highly parallel processing operates by passing messages to variable nodes based on updated states of first and second check nodes, processing messages from the variable nodes and updating states of first and second check nodes in a decoder with Z processors that operate in parallel, further processing the updated state information for the second check nodes to coordinate the states of N=Z/z sets of second check nodes, where z is the number of bits associated with the second check nodes, and repeating the process utilizing the coordinated states of the second check nodes as the updated states of the second check nodes.