Patent ID: 8467436

Claim:
A method of determining performance of a Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) link including a receive path, comprising: capturing digitized samples spanning multiple baud periods of a received signal waveform during normal operation in the receive path of a SerDes receiver into a memory without affecting normal operation of the SerDes link in the receive path; capturing the SerDes link timing into a memory without affecting normal operation of the SerDes link in the receive path, or calculating the SerDes link timing from the captured digitized samples of the received signal waveform; capturing the SerDes link equalization states into a memory without affecting normal operation of the SerDes link in the receive path, or calculating the SerDes link equalization states from the captured digitized samples of the received signal waveform; reconstructing the received signal waveform and an equalized signal waveform based on the captured digitized samples of the received signal waveform and either the captured or calculated timing and either the captured or calculated equalization states; and determining performance of the SerDes link on the basis of the reconstructed received signal waveform and the reconstructed equalized signal waveform.