Patent ID: 6956914

Claim:
An equalizer comprising: a variable gain amplifier coupled to an input signal from a transmission medium and a variable gain control signal that applies a variable gain to the input signal to generate an equalizer core input signal having a pre-determined signal swing; an equalizer core coupled to the equalizer core input signal that applies a frequency dependant gain to the variable gain amplifier output to compensate for attenuation of the input signal caused by losses incurred in the transmission medium and generates a core output signal; a fixed-swing slicer coupled to the core output signal that converts the core output signal to a digital output signal having the pre-determined signal swing; and a variable gain amplifier control loop (VG-Loop) coupled to the core output signal and the digital output signal that compares the core output signal with the digital output signal and generates the variable gain control signal; wherein the VG-Loop comprises; a first filter coupled to the core output signal that filters the core output signal to a frequency range at which the input signal incurs minimal attenuation from the transmission medium and generates a first low-frequency signal; and a second filter coupled to the digital output signal that filters the digital output signal to a frequency range at which the input signal incurs minimal attenuation from the transmission medium and generates a second low-frequency signal; wherein the first and second low-frequency signals are compared by the VG-Loop.