Eye diagrams are made for signals on each channel in a group thereof.
Outlying signals that do not exhibit overlap for a sampling parameter
that is to be common for all channels may be ignored and a warning given.
Selected, normalized eye openings are used to discover optimum sampling
parameters for each channel. Locations within each eye opening are ranked
according to preference. Algorithms are used to select a single best
value for a sampling parameter common to all the channels, and the
corresponding best other sampling parameter is found for each channel.
One algorithm disregards good choices for many channels to accommodate
any remaining channel by using only a commonly agreed upon value (a jury
system). Another algorithm gives weight to a choice according to the
number of channels that agree on that choice (majority rule). A graphical
user interface facilitates the selection, and emphasizes which sampling
parameters are constrained to vary together.