Patent ID: 8014471

Claim:
A high-speed serial bit stream interface that communicatively couples a line side media type of a plurality of media types to a communication Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), the high-speed serial bit stream interface comprising: a line side interface that communicatively couples to the line side media type, that receives a RX signal therefrom, and that transmits a TX signal thereto; a board side interface that communicatively couples to the communication ASIC, that receives a TX signal therefrom, and that transmits the RX signal thereto; a RX signal conditioning circuit communicatively coupled between a RX portion of the line side interface and a RX portion of the board side interface; a TX signal conditioning circuit communicatively coupled between a TX portion of the line side interface and a TX portion of the board side interface; a programmable control circuit coupled to the RX signal conditioning circuit and the TX signal conditioning circuit to cause the RX signal conditioning circuit and the TX signal conditioning circuit to perform signal conditioning on each of the RX signal and the TX signal, wherein the programmable control circuit operates to compensate for the line side media type of the plurality of media types; wherein the RX signal conditioning circuit and the TX signal conditioning circuit each include: a limiting amplifier that receives a respective serviced signal and that controllably amplifies the respective serviced signal to produce the respective serviced signal in a desired output range; and a clock and data recovery circuit communicatively coupled to the output of the limiting amplifier, wherein the clock and data recovery circuit receives, recovers, and reclocks the respective serviced signal; and wherein the limiting amplifier servicing the RX signal and the limiting amplifier servicing the TX signal are separately controlled by the programmable control circuit to produce the respective serviced signal in the desired output range.