Patent ID: 8098588

Claim:
A blind adaptive decision feedback equalizer method for filtering an analog input data signal to provide a decided digital data output, said method comprising: storing a first plurality of previous decided digital data samples; summing said analog input data signal with a number of terms, equal to said first plurality, each derived from one of said previous decided digital data samples, to produce a filtered analog input data signal; and digitizing said filtered analog input data signal to produce said decided digital data output; wherein: each of said terms is derived by multiplying each respective stored previously decided digital data sample by a respective coefficient determined by: supplying to said filtered analog input data signal an error generation function that assigns (a) a first error value to a positive filtered analog input data signal having a magnitude less than a first threshold, (b) a second error value to a negative filtered analog input data signal having a magnitude less than said first threshold, and (c) a third error value to a filtered analog input data signal having a magnitude at least equal to said first threshold, applying said assigned error value and said respective stored previously decided digital data sample to respective adaptation logic to generate a respective coefficient update, and outputting each respective coefficient update to a respective coefficient.