Vector signaling code with improved noise margin

摘要

Methods are described allowing a vector signaling code to encode multi-level data without the significant alphabet size increase known to cause symbol dynamic range compression and thus increased noise susceptibility. By intentionally restricting the number of codewords used, good pin efficiency may be maintained along with improved system signal-to-noise ratio.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of conductors configured to receive a set of input data bits; a pre-encoder configured to map the set of input data bits into symbols of a pre-code codeword of a pre-code, wherein the pre-code comprises a constrained set of vectors determined from a maximal set of vectors, and wherein the pre-code is associated with a constrained post-transformation alphabet comprising a portion of low magnitude symbol values selected from an unconstrained post-transformation alphabet associated with the maximal set of vectors, wherein each vector in the constrained set has values selected from a constellation of PAM-M values, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 3; an encoder configured to generate a constrained-alphabet codeword of a constrained-alphabet vector signaling code, the constrained-alphabet codeword representing a transformation of the pre-code codeword with a first non-simple orthogonal matrix, wherein the constrained-alphabet codeword comprises symbols of the constrained post-transformation alphabet; and, a driver configured to transmit the constrained-alphabet codeword on a multi-wire communication bus.