The present invention is directed to data communication. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a transceiver that processes an incoming data stream and generates a recovered clock signal based on the incoming data stream. The transceiver includes a voltage gain amplifier that also performs equalization and provides a driving signal to track and hold circuits that hold the incoming data stream, which is stored by shift and holder buffer circuits. Analog to digital conversion is then performed on the buffer data by a plurality of ADC circuits. Various DSP functions are then performed over the converted data. The converted data are then encoded and transmitted in a PAM format. There are other embodiments as well.

A receiver includes: an A/D converter that performs an analog digital conversion of an input signal; an equalizer that equalizes an output from the A/D converter, eliminates inter code interference and obtains a data output; a timing recovery part that generates a recovery clock from the data output of the equalizer; a detector that detects the timing when an input signal varies from a no-signal state and has reached a predetermined threshold; and an initial phase setting part that sets as the initial phase of the recovery clock by the timing recovery part, a timing when the predetermined time has elapsed after the timing detected by the detector.

A system for data and clock recovery includes a timing error detector, a phase detector, and a phase increment injector. The phase increment injector may be used to determine an increment to affect an output of the phase detector or a clocking element. A sign of the increment is determined from a sign or direction of an accumulated version of a clock and data recovery gradient value.

A data receiver circuit includes a summer circuit configured to receive an input signal that encodes multiple data symbols, and combine the input signal with a feedback signal to generate an equalized input signal, which is used to generate a clock signal. The data receiver circuit also includes multiple data slicer circuits that sample, using the clock signal and multiple voltage offsets, the equalized input signal to generate multiple samples of a particular data symbol. A precursor compensation circuit included in the data receiver circuit may generate an output value for the particular data symbol using the multiple samples. The data receiver circuit also includes a post cursor compensation circuit that generates the feedback signal using at least one of the multiple samples and a value of a previously received sample.

A receiver includes a feed-forward equalizer, a first detector, a jitter estimation circuit, and a jitter mitigation circuit. The feed-forward equalizer is configured to equalize channel gain of digitized samples of a received signal and to output equalized samples. The first detector is configured to detect symbols in the equalized samples. The jitter estimation circuit is configured to estimate jitter in the equalized samples by estimating a deviation in periodicity between pairs of the equalized samples. The jitter mitigation circuit comprises a linearized FIR filter configured to receive an input including the equalized samples or the detected symbols and to compensate inter symbol interference in the equalized samples due to the jitter as a function of the estimated jitter and an estimate of the inter symbol interference.

Methods, systems, and apparatus for error correction are provided. In one aspect, an error correction method includes: obtaining an output signal and an amplitude value of a feed forward equalizer (FFE), the amplitude value being a channel response amplitude value corresponding to an equivalent channel of the FFE, performing level decision on the output signal based on the amplitude value to obtain a first decision signal including (2M−1) decision symbols, M being an integer not less than 2, performing (1/(1+D)) decoding on the first decision signal to obtain a first decoded signal, determining a second decision signal based on the first decoded signal, the second decision signal including (M−1) decision symbols, determining that a burst error occurs in the second decision signal if an absolute value of the second decision signal is greater than (M−1), and correcting the burst error in the second decision signal.

In some disclosed embodiments, a Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) processes multiple symbols in parallel using a novel architecture that avoids violating a timing constraint. The DFE comprises Feed-Back (FB) filters that can be configured to equalizing nonlinear phenomena. Using a Look-Up Table (LUT)-based implementation, the FB filters may implement complex nonlinear functions at low hardware complexity, low latency and low power consumption. A LUT-based implementation of the FB filter supports adaptive FB filtering to changing channel conditions by updating LUT content.

A multi-PAM equalizer receives an input signal distorted by inter-symbol interference (ISI) and expressing a series of symbols each representing one of four pulse amplitudes to convey two binary bits of data per symbol. High-order circuitry resolves the most-significant bit (MSB) of each two-bit symbol, whereas low-order circuitry 115 resolves the immediate least-significant bit (LSB). The MSB is used without the LSB for timing recovery and to calculate tap values for both MSB and LSB evaluation.

A data receiver circuit includes a summer circuit configured to receive an input signal that encodes multiple data symbols, and combine the input signal with a feedback signal to generate an equalized input signal, which is used to generate a clock signal. The data receiver circuit also includes multiple data slicer circuits that sample, using the clock signal and multiple voltage offsets, the equalized input signal to generate multiple samples of a particular data symbol. A precursor compensation circuit included in the data receiver circuit may generate an output value for the particular data symbol using the multiple samples. The data receiver circuit also includes a post cursor compensation circuit that generates the feedback signal using at least one of the multiple samples and a value of a previously received sample.

A data receiver circuit includes a summer circuit configured to receive an input signal that encodes multiple data symbols, and combine the input signal with a feedback signal to generate an equalized input signal, which is used to generate a clock signal. The data receiver circuit also includes multiple data slicer circuits that sample, using the clock signal and multiple voltage offsets, the equalized input signal to generate multiple samples of a particular data symbol. A precursor compensation circuit included in the data receiver circuit may generate an output value for the particular data symbol using the multiple samples. The data receiver circuit also includes a post cursor compensation circuit that generates the feedback signal using at least one of the multiple samples and a value of a previously received sample.