Method and apparatus for a unified signaling decision feedback equalizer

A method and apparatus for advantageously utilizing the reset state of an RTZ shift register to guarantee proper data alignment at the feedback taps to facilitate decision feedback equalization (DFE) in a unified signaling system. An input data stream is sliced into an even data stream and an odd data stream, whereby the sliced data is compared to a programmable threshold depending upon a detection mode. Each bit of the even data stream is propagated through RTZ latches and each bit of the odd data stream is propagated through RTZ latches. At any given instant in time, a correct portion of the RTZ latch outputs contain zero information, so that each latch output may be summed in a current mode without the need for any intervening logic. The input data stream is summed in current mode with the feedback data and converted to voltage prior to sampling the currently received data bit.