The receiver inputs provide an adaptive equalization filter to compensate for signal degradation from the interconnect components. To determine the maximum cable reach, factors that affect signal integrity such as jitter, skew, ISI, crosstalk, and so forth, must be considered. The equalization status and configuration are selected through AEQ registers 0xD2–0xD5.

Each RX receiver incorporates an adaptive equalizer (AEQ), which continuously monitors cable characteristics for long-term cable aging and temperature changes. The AEQ attempts to optimize the equalization setting of the RX receiver.

If the deserializer loses LOCK, the adaptive equalizer will reset and perform the LOCK algorithm again to reacquire the serial data stream being sent by the serializer.