CRC for Protecting A Single Value

Some critical applications need to protect a single byte or word of data in memory against corruption. (For example, if you want to be extra-sure about protecting EEPROM values against corruption.) A previous post gives good CRC polynomials for a wide range of circumstances, but it is always nice to know if you can do better for a special case. Below are optimal CRC polynomials for a few special cases involving small data words that might be stored in memory (RAM, EEPROM, or otherwise).

Protecting an 8-bit data word:
8-bit CRC:  HD=5;  0x9C = x^8 + x^5 + x^4 + x^3 + 1  
16-bit CRC: HD=8; 0xE92F = x^16 + x^15 + x^14 + x^12 + x^9 + x^6 + x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1
32-bit CRC: HD=16; 0xC563942F = x^32 +x^31 +x^27 +x^25 +x^23 +x^22 +x^18 +x^17 +x^16 +x^13 +x^11 +x^6 +x^4 +x^3 +x^2 +x +1

Protecting a 16-bit data word:
8-bit CRC:  HD=4;  0x93 = x^8 + x^5 + x^2 + x + 1  
16-bit CRC: HD=7; 0x978A = x^16 + x^13 + x^11 + x^10 + x^9 + x^8 + x^4 +  x^2 + 1
32-bit CRC: HD=14; 0xB396786D = x^32 +x^30 +x^29 +x^26 +x^25 +x^24 +x^21 +x^19 +x^18 +x^15 +x^14 +x^13 +x^12 +x^7 +x^6 +x^4 +x^3 +x +1

Protecting a 32-bit data word:
8-bit CRC:  HD=4;  0x92 = x^8 + x^5 + x^2 + 1  
16-bit CRC: HD=6; 0x8BFC = x^16 + x^12 + x^10 + x^9 + x^8 + x^7 + x^6 + x^5 +  x^4 + x^3 + 1
32-bit CRC: HD=12; 0xB527A43B = x^32 +x^30 +x^29 +x^27 +x^25 +x^22 +x^19 +x^18 +x^17 +x^16 +x^14 +x^11 +x^6 +x^5 +x^4 +x^2 +x +1

The hex number has an implicit +1. "HD" means Hamming Distance. Other information about this topic can be found at my previous post on good CRCs.

Note that for this sort of use it is a good idea to "seed" the CRC computation with a value of that is not zero. That avoids a data word value of zero giving a CRC computed value of zero -- which will result in an undetected error if memory is wiped to all zeros for some reason.

What is the best CRC up to 16 bits in size?

Please see the posting at this link for this article:
http://betterembsw.blogspot.com/2010/05/whats-best-crc-polynomial-to-use.html