  The Gilbert-Varshamov bound states that the maximum size A_2(n,d) of a binary
code of length n and minimum distance d satisfies A_2(n,d) >= 2^n/V(n,d-1)
where V(n,d) stands for the volume of a Hamming ball of radius d. Recently
Jiang and Vardy showed that for binary non-linear codes this bound can be
improved to A_2(n,d) >= cn2^n/V(n,d-1) for c a constant and d/n <= 0.499. In
this paper we show that certain asymptotic families of linear binary [n,n/2]
random double circulant codes satisfy the same improved Gilbert-Varshamov
bound.
