Patent ID: 7221723

Claim:
A multi-phase sampling system having an odd number of evenly distributed clock phases, the clock phases being generated by a multi-phase clock generator, the multi-phase sampling system comprising: a plurality of samplers, each of the samplers sampling a same input data signal when a clock signal of one of the respective phases is received by the respective sampler, each sampler sampling a portion of the input data signal corresponding to a transition of the input data signal and a portion of the input data signal corresponding to data, the portion of the input data signal corresponding to data being in between two consecutive transitions of the input data signal, each sampler outputting a respective output signal; and phase error determination circuitry, the phase error determination circuitry receiving the respective output signals and making a respective phase error determination based on each of the respective output signals, wherein the multi-phase sampling system is part of a receiver that is in communication with a multi-phase system of a transmitter and wherein some of the phase error determinations correspond to phase errors of the multi-phase system of the receiver and wherein some of the phase error determinations correspond to phase errors of the multi-phase system of the transmitter.