Patent ID: 8572300

Claim:
A physical coding sublayer, comprising: a first channel configured to receive a first encoded data stream from a physical media attachment layer and to provide a first decoded data stream to a media access layer, the first channel including: a first circuit configured to detect synchronization headers in the first encoded data stream received from the physical media attachment layer; a decoding circuit configured to decode the encoded data stream and to adjust a width of the received data from a first width to a second width based on a signal indicating the synchronization headers received from the first circuit, wherein the decoding circuit includes a pair of parallel output ports each configured to output a respective data stream of the second width; and a single buffer coupled to the pair of outputs of the decoding circuit and configured to combine the data streams output by the decoding circuit into a single data stream and to compensate for reference clock differences between a first end of a peripheral component interconnect express link and a second end of a peripheral component interconnect express link to which the single buffer provides the first decoded data stream.