Patent ID: 7440497

Claim:
A data communication apparatus comprising: a transmitter capable of transmitting data in the form of a data signal representing a string of binary data bits, the data signal having at least two distinct amplitudes, the transmitter having a programmable feed-forward equalizer for minimizing pre-cursor inter-symbol interference in the data signal; a data channel coupled to the transmitter to transmit the data signal; and a receiver coupled to the data channel to receive the data signal, the receiver comprising: a plurality of modules, each module coupled to the data channel to receive the data signal, each module having a respective multi-phase adaptive decision feedback equalizer responsive to an output signal from a plurality of the modules that includes at least one other of the modules to modify the received signal based on the output signals of the plurality of the modules to minimize post-cursor inter-symbol interference in a current data bit of the received signal based on values of subsequent data bits, a processor responsive to output signals from each of the plurality of modules to generate a plurality of coefficient values, each adaptive decision feedback equalizer further comprises: a plurality of taps each responsive to a respective output signal from one of the modules and a respective coefficient value to generate a respective correction signal, and a summing device for summing the plurality of correction signals and the data signal.