Systems and methods for generating check node updates in the decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes use new approximations in order to reduce the complexity of implementing a LDPC decoder, while maintaining accuracy. The new approximations approximate the standard float-point sum-product algorithm (SPA), and can reduce the approximation error of min-sum algorithm (MSA) and have almost the same performance under 5 bits fix-point realization as the float-point sum-product algorithm (SPA).