A signal processing method includes receiving a digital signal including a sequence of samples. For each sample among at least some of the samples, a neighbor-based estimate is calculated over (i) one or more samples that precede the sample in the sequence and (ii) one or more samples that succeed the sample in the sequence, and an error value, indicative of a deviation of the neighbor-based estimate from an actual value of the sample, is calculating. An impairment in the digital signal is estimated based on a plurality of error values calculated for a plurality of the samples.

System and method of timing recovery for recovering a clock signal by using adaptive channel response estimation. The channel response estimation in the timing recovery loop is dynamically adapted to the current channel response that varies over time. More particularly, the channel estimation coefficients used in a channel estimator can be adapted based on an error signal representing the difference between a received signal at the timing recovery loop and an estimated signal output from a channel estimator. Further, to prevent undesirable interaction between the channel estimator and the overall timing recovery loop with respect to clock phase recovery, the adaptation of channel estimation can be controlled in terms of speed or time so as to reduce or eliminate the channel estimator's effect on clock phase correction.

Embodiments include systems and methods for applying a controllable early/late offset to an at-rate clock data recovery (CDR) system. Some embodiments operate in context of a CDR circuit of a serializer/deserializer (SERDES). For example, slope asymmetry around the first precursor of the channel pulse response for the SERDES can tend to skew at-rate CDR determinations of whether to advance or retard clocking. Accordingly, embodiments use asymmetric voting thresholds for generating each of the advance and retard signals in an attempt to de-skew the voting results and effectively tune the CDR to a position either earlier or later than the first precursor zero crossing (i.e., h(−1)=0) position. This can improve link margin and data recovery, particularly for long data channels and/or at higher data rates.

Methods and systems are described for generating two comparator outputs by comparing a received signal to a first threshold and a second threshold according to a sampling clock, the first and second thresholds determined by an estimated amount of inter-symbol interference on a multi-wire bus, selecting one of the two comparator outputs as a data decision, the selection based on at least one prior data decision, and selecting one of the two comparator outputs as a phase-error indication, the phase error indication selected in response to identification of a predetermined data decision pattern.

In a control system, a controller and a plurality of input/output units are daisy-chained, and each of the input/output units detects a phase difference between a phase of received serial data and a phase of a reference clock, outputs a determination signal if the phase difference exceeds a threshold value, and records the output frequency of the determination signals. The controller acquires the frequency of the determination signals recorded by each of the input/output unit and specifies a noise mixture route based on the acquired frequency of the determination signals.

A burst mode clock data recovery device includes a clock data recovery loop, a frequency tracking loop, a frequency tracking loop, and a fast-locking unit. The clock data recovery loop receives a sampling clock signal and a data signal and uses the sampling clock signal to lock the data signal to generate a recovery clock signal. The frequency tracking loop tracks a frequency of the recovery clock signal to generate a frequency detection signal associated with the recovery clock signal. The phase lock loop receives the frequency detection signal and locks the recovery clock signal in a reference clock. The fast-locking unit generates a fast-locking signal according to the recovery clock signal and a first phase detection signal to allow the clock data recovery loop to quickly lock the data signal after the transition from a stall mode to the burst mode.

An example phase-locked loop (PLL) includes a digital filter, an oscillator, and a time-to-digital converter (TDC). The digital filter is configured to sample at a discrete time that is responsive to a reference clock signal received at the digital filter. The oscillator is coupled to the digital filter and configured to generate an output signal of the PLL. The TDC is coupled to the oscillator to determine a phase difference between the output signal and the reference clock signal. The TDC also provides a time signal to the digital filter that is based on the phase difference and is representative of an instantaneous rate of operation of the PLL. The digital filter is further configured to adjust a response characteristic of the digital filter according to the time signal.

Methods and systems are described for receiving a signal to be sampled and responsively generating, at a pair of common nodes, a differential current representative of the received signal, receiving a plurality of sampling interval signals, each sampling interval signal received at a corresponding sampling phase of a plurality of sampling phases, for each sampling phase, pre-charging a corresponding pair of output nodes using a pre-charging FET pair receiving the sampling interval signal, forming a differential output voltage by discharging the corresponding pair of output nodes via a discharging FET pair connected to the pair of common nodes, the FET pair receiving the sampling interval signal and selectively enabling the differential current to discharge the corresponding pair of output nodes, and latching the differential output voltage.

An example method of performing an eye-scan in a receiver includes: generating digital samples from an analog signal input to the receiver based on a sampling clock, the sampling clock phase-shifted with respect to a reference clock based on a phase interpolator (PI) code; equalizing the digital samples based on first equalization parameters of a plurality of equalization parameters of the receiver; adapting the plurality of equalization parameters and performing clock recovery based on the digital samples to generate the PI code; and performing a plurality of cycles of locking the plurality of equalization parameters, suspending phase detection in the clock recovery, offsetting the PI code, collecting an output of the receiver, resuming the phase detection in the clock recovery, and unlocking the equalization parameters to perform the eye scan.

A method and system that provides for execution of a first calibration sequence, such as upon initialization of a system, to establish an operation value, which utilizes an algorithm intended to be exhaustive, and executing a second calibration sequence from time to time, to measure drift in the parameter, and to update the operation value in response to the measured drift. The second calibration sequence utilizes less resources of the communication channel than does the first calibration sequence. In one embodiment, the first calibration sequence for measurement and convergence on the operation value utilizes long calibration patterns, such as codes that are greater than 30 bytes, or pseudorandom bit sequences having lengths of 2.sup.N−1 bits, where N is equal to or greater than 7, while the second calibration sequence utilizes short calibration patterns, such as fixed codes less than 16 bytes, and for example as short as 2 bytes long.