Abstract: Eye violation detectors which provide either one of a "graded" or "half-graded" eye violation indicator technique. More particularly, the eye violation detector for practicing the "graded" technique provides an eye violation region in one or more eyes of a multiple eye pattern which is uniformly disposed on either side of the center of each of one or more eyes of the multiple pattern and includes a different amplitude in each of the eye patterns of interest. The eye violation detector for practicing the "half-graded" technique provides an eye violation region in one or more eyes of a multiple eye pattern which is disposed on only one side of the center of each of one or more eyes, except for the center eye of the multiple eye pattern, and includes a different amplitude in each of the eye patterns of interest.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an analog signal level monitor designed according to the distribution function of an analog input signal, where it is known that the percentage of time an analog input voltage spends within a desired level of operation of, for example, an A/D converter is directly related to its distribution function. Positioned at the output of an exemplary A/D converter, the present invention comprises a logic circuit (24) designed to output a first signal when the conversion is within this desired level and a second signal otherwise. The logic circuit output is passed through a normalized meter (22, 25), which provides an indication that directly corresponds to the above-described percentage, thereby indicating the optimality of the input signal level with respect to the level of operation. Alternatively, the present invention may be used to determine the maximum clock rate of a device, as for example, an A/D converter.