Inter-Symbol Interference (or Leaky Bits)

Figure 1: Inter-symbol interference, or ISI jitter, is the result
of information from one bit "leaking" to subsequent bits

In reviewing the subject of debugging high-speed serial links, one important aspect of signal integrity we must touch on is inter-symbol interference (ISI). ISI is the phenomenon in which information from one bit "leaks" to some subsequent number of bits.