Patent ID: 7317757

Claim:
An equalizer, comprising: a variable gain amplifier coupled to an input signal from a transmission medium and a variable gain control signal that applies a variable gain to the input signal to generate an equalizer core input signal having a pre-determined, fixed signal swing; a variable gain amplifier control loop coupled to the input signal and the equalizer core input signal that compares the input signal with the equalizer core input signal and generates the variable gain control signal; and an equalizer core coupled to the equalizer core input signal that applies a frequency dependant gain to the equalizer core input signal to compensate for attenuation of the input signal caused by losses incurred in the transmission medium; wherein the variable gain amplifier control loop comprises: a first filter coupled to the input signal that filters the input signal to a frequency range at which the input signal incurs minimal attenuation from the transmission medium and generates a first low-frequency signal; a fixed-swing slicer coupled to the equalizer core input signal that converts the equalizer core input signal into a digital signal having the pre-determined, fixed signal swing; and a second filter coupled to the digital signal that filters the digital signal to the frequency range at which the input signal incurs minimal attenuation from the transmission medium and generates a second low-frequency signal; wherein the first and second low-frequency signals are processed to generate the variable gain control signal.