The three pulses are typically square wave, they used to be actuall hall effect devices, hence the name, but now are commonly tracks on the encoder disk.
Here is a Renco diagram, the S1, S2, S3 show the commutation and shows the pattern for 1 electrical revolution, How many electrical revolutions per mechanical revolution depends on the pole count of the motor.
http://users.tinyworld.co.uk/flecc/4...otor031102.swf
Al.