For an $n_t$ transmit, $n_r$ receive antenna system ($n_t \times n_r$ system), a {\it{full-rate}} space time block code (STBC) transmits $n_{min} = min(n_t,n_r)$ complex symbols per channel use. The well known Golden code is an example of a full-rate, full-diversity STBC for 2 transmit antennas. Its ML-decoding complexity is of the order of $M^{2.5}$ for square $M$-QAM. The Silver code for 2 transmit antennas has all the desirable properties of the Golden code except its coding gain, but offers lower ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^2$. Importantly, the slight loss in coding gain is negligible compared to the advantage it offers in terms of lowering the ML-decoding complexity. For higher number of transmit antennas, the best known codes are the Perfect codes, which are full-rate, full-diversity, information lossless codes (for $n_r \geq n_t$) but have a high ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^{n_tn_{min}}$ (for $n_r < n_t$, the punctured Perfect codes are considered). In this paper, a scheme to obtain full-rate STBCs for $2^a$ transmit antennas and any $n_r$ with reduced ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^{n_t(n_{min}-(3/4))-0.5}$, is presented. The codes constructed are also information lossless for $n_r \geq n_t$, like the Perfect codes and allow higher mutual information than the comparable punctured Perfect codes for $n_r < n_t$. These codes are referred to as the {\it generalized Silver codes}, since they enjoy the same desirable properties as the comparable Perfect codes (except possibly the coding gain) with lower ML-decoding complexity, analogous to the Silver-Golden codes for 2 transmit antennas. Simulation results of the symbol error rates for 4 and 8 transmit antennas show that the generalized Silver codes match the punctured Perfect codes in error performance while offering lower ML-decoding complexity.

Accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. This revised version has 30 pages, 7 figures and Section III has been completely revised