Patent ID: 8804809

Claim:
A decision feedback equalizer (DFE) for equalizing N-pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-N) signals, comprising: a coefficient setting unit for setting a first group of most significant feedback coefficients of the DFE to a predefined value selected from a group of predefined values; a coefficients computation unit coupled to the coefficient setting unit for computing values of feedback coefficients of a second group of feedback coefficients other than the first group of most significant feedback coefficients; a feedback (FB) unit for mitigating, using a complete group of feedback coefficients, effects of interference from data symbols that are adjacent in time to an input data symbol, wherein the most significant feedback coefficients of the first group are set to an optimal value computed during an initialization of the DFE and the feedback coefficients of the second group are computed by the coefficients computation unit, and wherein the complete group of feedback coefficients includes the first and second groups of feedback coefficients; an error-and-decision unit for at least computing an error value indicating the sum of errors of an input symbol of the input data symbol from optimal positions of the voltage levels of the PAM-N signals; and a calibration unit for computing, based on the error value, the voltage levels of the PAM-N signals and a value of a quality parameter utilized to determine the optimal value for the feedback coefficients in the first group of most significant feedback coefficients.