Patent ID: 8213494

Claim:
A system comprising: one or more residual intersymbol interference (ISI) detectors that are each configured to receive from a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) a data signal or an error signal comprising residual ISI and produce a first output signal indicating whether the residual ISI has a positive sign or a negative sign; one or more column balancers that are each configured to receive, from one or more of the ISI residual detectors, respective first output signals and select one of the received first output signals to produce a second output signal; and one or more weight selectors that are each configured to: receive, from a particular one of the one or more column balancers, a respective second output signal; access from among a plurality of weight values one of the weight values for the received second output signal, the accessed one of the weight values: corresponding to the particular one column balancer; and the residual ISI detector that produced the selected first output signal to produce the received second output signal; and having a magnitude that is substantially independent of the sign of the residual ISI indicated by the selected first output signal to produce the received second output signal; and produce a third output signal based on the accessed one of the weight values and the sign of the residual ISI indicated by the selected first output signal to produce the received second output signal, the third signal being usable in producing one or more fourth output signals representing one or more control variables for one or more equalizers.