Patent ID: 7522663

Claim:
A burst error limiting symbol detector system, comprising: a decision circuit responsive to a corrected sample signal for detecting multilevel or multidimensional symbols encoded in the corrected sample signal with reference to a plurality of associated thresholds; a feedback egualizer circuit for providing a feedback egualizer signal for cancelling undesired distortion in an input signal; a summing circuit operable responsive to the input signal and the feedback egualizer signal for providing the corrected sample signal to the decision circuit; and a feedback modification circuit operable responsive to the corrected sample being within one of a plurality of valid symbol windows to feed back the detected symbol to the feedback egualizer and operable responsive to the corrected sample being within one of plurality of marginal threshold windows to feed back a corresponding intermediate value to the feedback egualizer, wherein the feedback modification circuit comprises: a plurality of marginal window comparators, each marginal window comparator having a first input coupled to receive the corrected sample signal and a second and third inputs adapted to receive corresponding marginal threshold signals, and having an output; a multiplexer coupled to the output of the detection logic circuitry to receive the detected value of each multilevel or multidimensional symbol on a first input and including a plurality of additional inputs respectively to receive a plurality of predetermined invalid symbol values, the multiplexer operable to supply a value on one of the inputs responsive to a plurality of control signals; and feedback logic circuitry coupled to the multiplexer and operable to develop the control signals responsive to the outputs from the plurality of marginal window comparators.