We propose a pipelined Reed-Solomon(RS) decoder for an ultra-wideband system using a modified stepby-step algorithm. To reduce the complexity, the modified step-by-step algorithm merges two cases of the original algorithm. The pipelined structure allows the decoder to work at high rates with minimum delay. Consequently, for RS(23,17) codes, the proposed architecture requires 42.5% and 24.4% less area compared with a modified Euclidean architecture and a pipelined degree-computationless modified Euclidean architecture, respectively. The area of the proposed decoder is 11.3% less than that of the previous step-by-step decoder with a lower critical path delay. We propose a pipelined Reed-Solomon (RS) decoder for an ultra-wideband system using a modified stepby-step algorithm. To reduce the complexity, the modified step-by-step algorithm merges two cases of the original algorithm. The pipelined structure allows the decoder to work at high rates with minimum delay. respectively, for RS (23,17) codes, the proposed architecture requires 42.5% and 24.4% less area than with a modified Euclidean architecture and a pipelined degree-computationless modified Euclidean architecture, respectively The area of ​​the proposed decoder is 11.3% less than that of the previous step-by-step decoder with a lower critical path delay.