Patent ID: 6483849
Filing Date: 2002-11-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A multi-port transceiver for supporting data communications with multiple data communication devices, the transceiver comprising:multiple physical ports for providing interface to said multiple data communication devices, an indication interface having at least one pin for each of the ports for providing connection to indication devices, and an indication interface configuration circuit for configuring the indication interface to operate in a parallel indication mode, which provides parallel output of the status data for multiple physical ports, and in a serial indication mode, in which status data for multiple physical ports are being output sequentially in a serial data stream, wherein in the serial indication mode, less than all the pins of the indication interface are used for transferring information for all the ports, with one pin used for shifting out a serial status data stream composed of status bits representing statuses of data communication via the multiple physical ports, and the serial status data stream comprises multiple frames, each of which indicates a plurality of events representing the multiple physical ports.