High speed signaling system with adaptive transmit pre-emphasis and reflection cancellation

A method of operation within a signaling system, the method comprising:

• outputting a first signal from a transmit circuit to a receive circuit, the receive circuit having a data sampling circuit and an error sampling circuit;
• sampling the first signal in the data sampling circuit and in the error sampling circuit to generate a plurality of data samples and a plurality of error samples, respectively;
• adjusting a signal drive strength of the transmit circuit based on the plurality of data values and the plurality of error values;
• selecting a subset of data values from the plurality of data values;
• generating an equalizing signal the based on the subset of data values;
• and
• providing the equalizing signal to the data sampling circuit and error sampling circuit.

A method of operation within an integrated circuit device, the method comprising:

• generating a sequence of data samples having either a first state or second state according to whether an input signal exceeds a first decision threshold;
• generating a sequence of error samples that correspond to the data samples and that have either the first state or second state according to whether the input signal exceeds a second decision threshold;
• adjusting the second decision threshold based on the data samples and the error samples;
• shifting the sequence of data samples through a sequence of storage elements;
• outputting the data samples at selected bit positions of the shift register to an equalization circuit;
• and
• adjusting an equalizing signal based, at least in part, on the data samples output from the selected bit positions of the shift register, the equalizing signal affecting determinations of whether the input signal exceeds the first and second decision thresholds.

A method of operation within an integrated circuit device, the method comprising:

• generating a sequence of data samples having either a first state or second state according to whether an input signal exceeds a first threshold;
• generating a sequence of error samples having either the first state or second state according to whether the input signal exceeds a second threshold;
• shifting the sequence of data samples through a sequence of storage elements;
• generating an equalizing signal based on the data samples stored within a selected subset of storage elements, the equalizing signal affecting determinations of whether the input signal exceeds the first and second thresholds;
• and
• identifying the selected subset of the storage elements based on the data samples and the error samples.

A signaling system comprising:

• a signal path;
• an equalizing transmitter coupled to a first end of the signal path to transmit a first signal thereon;
• first and second sampling circuits coupled to a second end of the signal path to receive the first signal and to determine whether the first signal exceeds first and second thresholds, respectively;
• a decision-feedback equalizer circuit coupled to output an equalizing signal to the first and second sampling circuits;
• and
• a control circuit to adjust a drive strength of the equalizing transmitter and a drive strength of the decision-feedback equalizer circuit based, at least in part, on whether the first signal exceeds the first and second thresholds.

A signaling system comprising:

• a signal path;
• an equalizing transmitter coupled to the signal path to transmit a first signal thereon;
• a data sampling circuit coupled to the signal path and configured to sample the first signal to generate a plurality of data samples;
• an error sampling circuit coupled to the signal path and configured to sample the first signal to generate a plurality of error samples;
• a control circuit to adjust a drive strength of the equalizing transmitter based on the plurality of data samples and the plurality of error samples;
• a select circuit to select a subset of data samples from the plurality of data samples;
• and
• an equalizing driver to generate an equalizing signal based on the subset of data samples and to output the equalization signal to the data sampling circuit and error sampling circuit.

An integrated circuit device comprising:

• means for generating a sequence of data samples having either a first state or second state according to whether an input signal exceeds a first threshold;
• means for generating a sequence of error samples having either the first state or second state according to whether the input signal exceeds a second threshold;
• means for shifting the sequence of data samples through a sequence of storage elements;
• means for generating an equalizing signal based on the data samples stored within a selected subset of storage elements, the equalizing signal affecting determinations of whether the input signal exceeds the first and second thresholds;
• and
• means for identifying the selected subset of the storage elements based on the data samples and the error samples.