Patent ID: 8194728

Claim:
A tap/group-revivable decision feedback equalizing method for a tap/group-revivable decision feedback equalizer, wherein the decision feedback equalizer comprises a feed-forward filter and a feedback filter, the feed-forward filter comprises a plurality of taps divided into M groups, and the feedback filter comprises a plurality of taps divided into N groups, wherein each group of the N groups has n taps, each group of the M groups has m taps, and M, N, m and n are integers greater than 2, comprising: training all the taps to generate their tap coefficients; selecting all the taps of any of the groups of the feed-forward filter with a tap coefficient greater than a first predetermined value and selecting all the taps of any of the groups of the feedback filter with a tap coefficient greater than a second predetermined value; selecting a number of taps of any of the groups of the feed-forward filter without a tap coefficient greater than the first predetermined value but with a neighboring group with a tap coefficient greater than the first predetermined value, and selecting a number of taps of any of the groups of the feedback filter without a tap coefficient greater than the second predetermined value but with a neighboring group with a tap coefficient greater than the second predetermined value; and utilizing the selected taps for equalization.