Patent ID: 8385396

Claim:
A waveform equalizer for performing waveform equalization of an input signal, said waveform equalizer comprising: a filter including at least a group of delay devices connected serially to delay said input signal successively, a group of multipliers for multiplying an output from each of said delay devices by a filter coefficient, and a group of adders for adding up outputs from said multipliers in order to acquire a waveform-equalized output signal; and timing signal selecting means for selecting either a first or a second timing signal for driving said filter based on an instruction input to the waveform equalizer, said first timing signal driving said filter at intervals of a period of a symbol frequency of said input signal, said second timing signal driving said filter at intervals of a period shorter than that of said symbol frequency; wherein said filter is driven (a) as a symbol rate equalizer when said first timing signal is selected and (b) as a fractionally spaced equalizer when said second timing signal is selected.