This paper presents a feedforward nonlinear equalizer (FFNE) framework for short- to medium-reach wireline links that removes the feedback-timing bottleneck of decision-feedback equalizers (DFEs) while approaching the noise-margin advantage within a characterized operating region. The proposed FFNE reduces short-window maximum-likelihood sequence estimation to a compact binary decision rule, enabling a low-complexity feedforward realization without transmitter-side encoding. For the single-postcursor NRZ case, the mathematical foundation, hardware implementation, tap adaptation, statistical analysis, and equalization limit relative to an ideal 1-tap DFE are established. A window-length-3 FFNE quantifies the performance-complexity tradeoff of longer sequence windows. The framework is further extended to PAM-4 modulation and simultaneous precursor/postcursor equalization through a pattern-detection-based FFNE (PD-FFNE), which outperforms conventional FFE+DFE baselines under representative channel conditions.