TECHNIQUES FOR SETTING FEEDBACK COEFFICIENTS OF A PAM-N DECISION FEEDBACK EQUALIZER

A decision feedback equalizer (DFE) for equalizing PAM-N signals comprises a coefficient setting unit for setting a first group of most significant feedback coefficients of the DFE to a predefined value selected from a group of predefined values; a coefficients computation unit coupled to the coefficient setting unit for computing values of feedback coefficients of a second group of feedback coefficients other than the first group of most significant feedback coefficients; a feedback (FB) unit for mitigating, using a complete group of feedback coefficients, effects of interference from data symbols that are adjacent in time to an input data symbol, wherein most significant feedback coefficients of the first group are set to an optimal value computed during an initialization of the DFE and feedback coefficients of the second group are computed by the coefficients computation unit.