Method and apparatus for CTLE equalizer adaptation based on samples from error slicers

A method for adapting an equalizer to a channel comprising:

• filtering a high frequency error monitor slicer output and a data slicer output to isolate errors selected by high frequency symbol values;
• filtering a low frequency error monitor slicer output and the data slicer output to isolate errors selected by low frequency symbol values;
• generating a high frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal with a first adaptation module;
• generating a low frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal with the first adaptation module or a second adaption module;
• providing the high frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal to a high frequency error monitor slicer;
• providing the low frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal to a low frequency error monitor slicer;
• combining the high frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal and the low frequency error monitor slicer threshold signal to generate a difference signal;
• and
• integrating the difference signal with an accumulator to generate equalizer coefficients to adapt the equalizer to the channel.

A method for adapting an equalizer by generating equalizer coefficients comprising:

• generating a high frequency slicer threshold value by filtering high frequency components of an equalized signal;
• generating a low frequency slicer threshold value by filtering low frequency components of an equalized signal;
• combining the high frequency slicer threshold value and the low frequency slicer threshold value to create a difference signal;
• accumulating the difference signal over time with an integrating accumulator to generate an accumulator value and updating equalizer coefficients when the accumulator value reaches a predetermined value.