An equalizer and method is implemented to improve the performance of a communication system based on multi-level amplitude modulation schemes. The equalizer may include a linear equalization circuit including a plurality of time delayed taps and configured to receive an input signal and generate an output signal. The equalizer may further include a nonlinear circuit configured to receive signals from at least a portion of the time delayed taps and generate at least a portion of a difference between the signals, the output signal based at least in part on the difference.

Sampling circuitry for receiving an analog signal from photodetector circuitry and generating a sample analog signal. Equalization circuitry for generating an equalized signal comprising first and second sample values corresponding with a cursor tap and a first postcursor tap, and one or more third sample values corresponding with taps other than the cursor tap and the first postcursor tap. In the equalized signal, amplitudes of the first and second sample values are substantially equal while the third sample values are attenuated relative to the first and second sample values. The first and second sample values correspond with two or more first symbols of a first alphabet. Data slicer and modulo circuitry to generate a data signal based on the equalized signal and perform a modulo operation on the two or more first symbols and to generate one or more second symbols. The second symbols are according to a second alphabet.

A physical layer transceiver, for connecting a host device to a wireline channel medium that is divided into a total number of link segments, includes a host interface for coupling to a host device, a line interface for coupling to the wireline channel medium, and feed-forward equalization (FFE) circuitry operatively coupled to the line interface to add back, into a signal, components that were scattered in time. Respective individual filter segments are selectably configurable, by adjustment of respective delay lines, to correspond to respective individual link segments. The FFE circuitry also includes control circuitry configured to detect a signal energy peak in at least one particular link segment and, upon detection of the signal energy peak in the particular link segment, configure a respective one of the respective individual filter segments, by adjustment of a respective delay line, to correspond to the respective particular link segment.

A physical layer transceiver, for connecting a host device to a wireline channel medium that is divided into a total number of link segments, includes a host interface for coupling to a host device, a line interface for coupling to the wireline channel medium, and feed-forward equalization (FFE) circuitry operatively coupled to the line interface to add back, into a signal, components that were scattered in time. Respective individual filter segments are selectably configurable, by adjustment of respective delay lines, to correspond to respective individual link segments. The FFE circuitry also includes control circuitry configured to detect a signal energy peak in at least one particular link segment and, upon detection of the signal energy peak in the particular link segment, configure a respective one of the respective individual filter segments, by adjustment of a respective delay line, to correspond to the respective particular link segment.

An equalizer has a first tapped delay line in which N taps (N is a positive integer) are connected in cascade, a second tapped delay line having one tap and connected in parallel with the first tapped delay line, a first multiplier configured to multiply signals extracted from the N taps by corresponding coefficients, a second multiplier configured to multiply a signal output from the second tapped delay line by a second coefficient, and an adder configured to add products of the first multiplier and a product of the second multiplier. The first tapped delay line has a fixed delay, and the second tapped delay line has a variable delay changeable at a 1/M resolution of the fixed delay, where M is a number greater than 1.

The present invention discloses a receive data equalization apparatus. A delay-compensating calculation circuit retrieves training data groups of a training data signal to retrieve total delay amount, generate signed compensation amounts according to a relation among training data contents of training data in each of the training data groups to generate total compensation amount accordingly, and solve equations that correspond total delay amount of the training data groups to the total compensation amount to obtain each of the compensation amounts. A receive data equalization circuit receives the compensation amounts and retrieves a receive data group in a receive data signal, generate signed receive compensation amounts according to a relation among receive data contents of receive data in the receive data group to generate a total receive compensation amount accordingly to perform equalization on a terminal edge of the receive data group according to the total receive compensation amount.

A physical layer transceiver for a wireline channel medium includes a host interface to a host device, a line interface to the medium, encoding/decoding circuitry for interfacing between the host device and the medium, and adaptive filter circuitry coupled to the encoding/decoding circuitry. The adaptive filter circuitry includes a plurality of filter taps, each corresponding to a segment of the medium, and capable of being powered ON and OFF separately from each other filter tap. Adaptive control circuitry can power ON a first subset, fewer than all the filter taps, corresponding to segments distributed along the medium, monitor powered-ON filter taps for occurrence of interference events, and upon detection of an interference event at a particular segment to which a particular powered-ON filter tap corresponds, power ON one or more additional filter taps corresponding to one or more segments in a vicinity of the particular segment.

A transmitter (TX)-side feedforward equalizer (FFE) includes one or more “roaming” filter taps which can be used to compensate reflections that occur at unpredictable and substantial time offsets from a main pulse. The roaming filter taps are realized in a hardware- and power-efficient manner by implementing a programmable delay serializer in which the phases of multi-rate clocks are switched to introduce binary weighted delays on the roaming tap. In this way a variable difference in latencies is introduced between the main and the roaming tap data paths. The TX-side FFE implementations provide a fully programmable roaming tap generator having a 1-Unit Interval (UI) resolution of delay setting integrated into the data serializer of the TX macro.

An equalizer has a first tapped delay line in which N taps (N is a positive integer) are connected in cascade, a second tapped delay line having one tap and connected in parallel with the first tapped delay line, a first multiplier configured to multiply signals extracted from the N taps by corresponding coefficients, a second multiplier configured to multiply a signal output from the second tapped delay line by a second coefficient, and an adder configured to add products of the first multiplier and a product of the second multiplier. The first tapped delay line has a fixed delay, and the second tapped delay line has a variable delay changeable at a 1/M resolution of the fixed delay, where M is a number greater than 1.

The present invention discloses a receive data equalization apparatus. A delay-compensating calculation circuit retrieves training data groups of a training data signal to retrieve total delay amount, generate signed compensation amounts according to a relation among training data contents of training data in each of the training data groups to generate total compensation amount accordingly, and solve equations that correspond total delay amount of the training data groups to the total compensation amount to obtain each of the compensation amounts. A receive data equalization circuit receives the compensation amounts and retrieves a receive data group in a receive data signal, generate signed receive compensation amounts according to a relation among receive data contents of receive data in the receive data group to generate a total receive compensation amount accordingly to perform equalization on a terminal edge of the receive data group according to the total receive compensation amount.