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 method of calibrating a clock phase and a voltage offset includes receiving an input data signal that is periodically toggled. A clock phase calibration operation is performed based on an up signal and a down signal, such that phases of a plurality of clock signals are adjusted. The up signal and the down signal are generated based on the input data signal, a reference voltage and the plurality of clock signals. A voltage offset calibration operation is performed based on the up signal, the down signal and a first sample data signal, such that a voltage level of the reference voltage is adjusted. The first sample data signal is generated by sampling the input data signal based on one of the plurality of clock signals. The clock phase calibration operation and the voltage offset calibration operation are performed independently of each other and not to overlap with each other.

A circuit for receiving serial data. In some embodiments, the circuit has an input for receiving an analog input signal, and includes a first sampler for sampling the analog input signal relative to a first reference voltage, a second sampler for sampling the analog input signal relative to a second reference voltage, and a reference voltage control circuit. The second reference voltage may have a sign opposite to that of the first reference voltage; and the reference voltage control circuit may be configured to adjust the first reference voltage or the second reference voltage, based on a first sample of the analog input signal, the first sample having been taken at a sampling time corresponding to a one bit, in the serial data, preceded by a one bit and followed by a one bit.

A calibration method of an equalizer circuit for a memory storage device is disclosed. The calibration method includes: receiving a first signal; adjusting, by the equalizer circuit, the first signal according to a control parameter to output a second signal; generating a first sampling signal according to a first reference signal and the second signal, wherein the first sampling signal reflects data transmitted by the first signal; and generating a second sampling signal according to a second reference signal and the second signal and adjusting the control parameter according to the second sampling signal to calibrate the equalizer circuit, wherein a voltage value of the first reference signal is different from a voltage value of the second reference signal.

The present disclosure relates to an adaptation method for data level (dLev) or data swing detection in a high-speed link system for multi-level (e.g. PAM-4) signaling. Provided are a receiver and a receiving method in which when a swing range of data received as an input is changed according to a channel condition, reference levels of data/swing detection samplers are not adaptively controlled, but the reference levels are fixed and a variable gain amplifier (VGA) is adaptively controlled for response to the change. Through the present disclosure, offset calibration of the data/swing detection samplers is more accurately performed and lower bit error rate (BER) is thus achieved.

An input signal arranged in frames is received. The frames include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field including a number of bits having bit edges. A timing signal is generated to include adjustable duration waveforms at one of a first duration value and a second duration value. A CRC check determines the occurrence, over the duration, of a number of waveforms of the timing signal having their duration adjusted to one of the first duration value and the second duration value which corresponds to the number of bits. A check signal is produced having a pass/fail value. If pass, the duration of the waveforms in the timing signal is maintained adjusted to the one of the first duration value and the second duration value. If fail, the duration of the waveforms in the timing signal is re-adjusted to the other of the first duration value and the second duration value.

A baud-rate phase detector uses two error samplers. One error sampler is used to determine whether the sampling time is too early error detection. The other is used to determine whether sampling time is too late. The early error sampler is configured to use a first threshold voltage. The late error sampler is configured to use a second threshold voltage. By adjusting the voltage difference between the first threshold voltage and the second threshold voltage, the phase difference between the local timing reference clock and the transitions of the data signal may be adjusted. The phase difference between the local timing reference clock and the transitions of the data signal may be adjusted to improve or optimize a desired receiver characteristic such as bit error rate or signal eye opening.

A receiving apparatus is provided, including: a receiving unit to receive a plurality of pulses including a synchronization pulse and a data pulse having a data pulse width corresponding to a data value; a searching unit to search for pulse information indicating a pulse period or the like that falls within a synchronization pulse acceptable range from among pulse information indicating pulse periods or pulse widths of the respective pulses; a detecting unit to detect whether pulse information of a second pulse at a predetermined location relative to a first pulse corresponding to the searched pulse information indicates a pulse period or the like that falls within a data pulse acceptable range; an identifying unit to identify the first pulse as the synchronization pulse on condition that the pulse information of the second pulse indicates a pulse period or the like that falls within the data pulse acceptable range.

A high peak bandwidth I/O channel embedded within a multilayer surface interface that forms the bus circuitry electrically interfacing the output or input port on a first semiconductor die with the input or output port on a second semiconductor die.

Methods and systems are described for receiving a plurality of signals corresponding to symbols of a codeword on a plurality of wires of a multi-wire bus, and responsively generating a plurality of sub-channel outputs using a plurality of multi-input comparators (MICs) connected to the plurality of wires of the multi-wire bus, generating a plurality of wire-specific skew control signals, each wire-specific skew control signal of the plurality of wire-specific skew control signals generated by combining (i) one or more sub-channel specific skew measurement signals associated with corresponding sub-channel outputs undergoing a transition and (ii) a corresponding wire-specific transition delta, and providing the plurality of wire-specific skew control signals to respective wire-skew control elements to adjust wire-specific skew.