1. An adaptive equalizer comprising: a Viterbi decoder having 16 stages and producing a decoded output; a mapper coupled to the decoded output of the Viterbi decoder, the mapper producing a mapped output; and a decision feedback equalizer coupled to the mapped output, the decision feedback equalizer having more than 16 taps; wherein 16 of the taps each receive as input via the mapper output from a respective one of the 16 stages of the Viterbi decoder.