Patent ID: 7940839

Claim:
An equalization apparatus for automatically equalizing serial communication over a communication channel comprising: i) an adaptive transmit equalizer to receive an outgoing serial data stream and provide launch data into the communication channel, the launch data equalized in response to transmit control parameters; ii) an adaptive receive equalizer to receive an incoming data stream from the communication channel and condition the received incoming data stream to produce an equalized output serial data stream in response to receive control parameters; and iii) control means operable to control said adaptive transmit equalizer and said adaptive receive equalizer based on said incoming data stream; wherein the adaptive receive equalizer includes an adaptive linear equalizer in combination with an adaptive non-linear decision feedback equalizer (DFE) to condition the received incoming data into said equalized output serial data stream; and wherein the control means includes a data slicer providing input to a data demultiplexer, a positive offset monitor slicer providing input to a positive monitor demultiplexer and a negative offset monitor slicer providing input to a negative monitor demultiplexer, each slicer coupled to said equalized output serial data stream wherein the demultiplexers provide inputs for producing said transmit control parameters and said receive control parameters.