Patent ID: 7174484

Claim:
A data transmission system which transports data in parallel form, comprising: (a) a transmitter comprising: a serial-to-parallel converter which converts a serial data stream into a set of parallel data streams, and a sync pattern inserter which generates a sync pattern and inserts the sync pattern to each of the parallel data streams, thereby producing sync pattern-inclusive data streams; and (b) a receiver comprising: a data retimer which extracts a reference clock from one of the sync pattern-inclusive data streams and produces retimed data streams by retiming all the sync pattern-inclusive data streams with the extracted reference clock, the sync pattern-inclusive data streams having been distorted with propagation delay skews, an in-sync detector which produces pulse signals indicating the sync pattern present in each individual retimed data stream, and determines whether each retimed data stream is in an in-sync state, and a phase adjuster which identifies the propagation delay skews by examining the pulse signals, and adjusts the phases of the retimed data streams to correct the propagation delay skews thereof.