Of the two definitions you got from Google: Pre-emphasis: " Improving the signal to noise ratio by increasing the magnitude of higher frequency signals with respect to lower frequency signals" De-emphasis: " Improving the signal to noise ratio by decreasing the magnitude of higher frequency signals with respect to lower frequency signals" The Pre-emphasis definition is acceptable. The De-emphasis definition is clearly wrong, in my opinion. De-emphasis goal is the same, to increase magnitude of higher frequency signals with respect to low frequency signals. It just is a slightly different way to get that effect. I think pre-emphasis and de-emphasis are much easier to understand in the time domain, rather than the frequency domain. In the time domain, as text with with one dash per UI (transitions don't appear) : Each diagram is 4 UI low, 5 UI high, 4 UI low _ _____ ... ____ ... _ ____ ____ ____ ... ____ ___ ... ____ ___ _ _ The desired pulse With pre-emphasis With deemphasis The first UI All but the first UI after a transition after a transition is higher amplitude are lower amplitude The reason to do this is because a normal channel attenuates high frequencies more, so the (relatively) sharp rising edge of a transmitted pulse will become slower at the far end, and the first UI would not reach the desired height by the middle of the UI. That is, it would cause the eye opening to be reduced. By having the TX pump out a larger transition, after the loss due to the channel, at the far end, the signal looks better - more like what we desired. Standards like PCI-Express don't actually call for pre-emphasis, rather they call for de-emphasis. The effect is the same - the transitions are sent larger than subsequent bits; but it is achieved by using the nominal level for the first bit after a transition and a smaller level for all subsequent bits. This makes a nice but smaller eye. --- Joe S. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu