Matrix-Product Codes over ? q

Codes C ₁ ,…,C _M of length n over ? _q and an M × N matrix A over ? _q define a matrix-product code C = C ₁ …C _M ] ·A consisting of all matrix products c ₁ … c _M ] ·A. This generalizes the (u|u+v)-, (u+v+w|2u+v|u)-, (a+x|b+x|a+b+x)-, (u+v|u-v)- etc. constructions. We study matrix-product codes using Linear Algebra. This provides a basis for a unified analysis of |C|, d(C), the minimum Hamming distance of C, and C ^⊥. It also reveals an interesting connection with MDS codes. We determine |C| when A is non-singular. To underbound d(C), we need A to be `non-singular by columns (NSC)'. We investigate NSC matrices. We show that Generalized Reed-Muller codes are iterative NSC matrix-product codes, generalizing the construction of Reed-Muller codes, as are the ternary `Main Sequence codes'. We obtain a simpler proof of the minimum Hamming distance of such families of codes. If A is square and NSC, C ^⊥ can be described using C ₁ ^⊥, …,C _M ^⊥ and a transformation of A. This yields d(C ^⊥). Finally we show that an NSC matrix-product code is a generalized concatenated code. Received: July 20, 1999; revised version: August 27, 2001