Soft-output detection of a multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) signal pose a significant challenge in future wireless systems. In this paper, we introduce a soft-output modified metric first (MMF)-LSD algorithm for MIMO detection. We design a scalable architecture and address a method to decrease memory requirements. We provide implementation results for a spatial multiplexing (SM) system with four transmitted streams and with 16- and 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) on a 0.18- m CMOS application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology. The MFF-LSD implementation is more efficient than the depth first (DF) -LSD in the crucial low signal-to-noise rate (SNR)region and the detection rate of the 64-QAM implementation is 39.2 Mbps@26 db with 48.2 kGEs complexity.