1. A method for manufacturing a serial link comprising a channel and a receiver, the link comprising a plurality of linear time-invariant blocks, the receiver comprising a continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE) comprising a nonlinear block having an input and an output, and a slicer having an input, the method comprising: for each of a plurality of candidate CTLE configurations of the CTLE: calculating a first probability density function (PDF), corresponding to a first signal value, at the input of the nonlinear block, calculating a first PDF, corresponding to the first signal value, at the output of the nonlinear block from the first PDF at the input of the nonlinear block; calculating a second PDF, corresponding to a second signal value, at the input of the nonlinear block, calculating a second PDF, corresponding to the second signal value, at the output of the nonlinear block from the second PDF at the input of the nonlinear block; calculating a bit error rate, from: the first PDF at the output of the nonlinear block; and the second PDF at the output of the nonlinear block; selecting a configuration, from among the candidate CTLE configurations, satisfying a criterion; and fabricating the CTLE with the selected configuration.