Patent attributes
A method and apparatus is disclosed for adaptively determining threshold values in a decision device, such as a decision slicer. In one embodiment, a slicer receives one or more updated threshold values during operation to adaptively accommodate changes in the received signal or the channel that may occur over time. The updated threshold value is based on a MIN value and a MAX value. The MIN values represent a value related to a recently received input that was determined to qualify for a particular slicer output and was less than the particular slicer output value. The MAX values represent a value related to a recently received input that was determined to qualify for a particular slicer output and was greater than the particular slicer output value. In one embodiment, the MAX and MIN value computation is based on scaling factors that dampen the rate of change of the threshold value.
