Patent ID: 8526554

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receive a serial data stream, wherein the receiver comprises: a shift register comprising a plurality of stages configured to propagate a stream of characters in sequence, wherein the shift register is configured to detect a special character in the stream of characters, the special character including character provided for timing alignment; and a multiplexer having a plurality of inputs, each of the inputs being electrically coupled to a respective one of the stages of the shift register, and configured to select one of the stages to generate an output for the multiplexer; and a logic circuit configured to transmit, as an output of the apparatus, a first timing information associated with a timing of detection of the last special character received by the receiver, receive, as an input to the apparatus, a second timing information associated with a timing of detection of the last special character received by another apparatus, and generate a selection signal for control of the multiplexer based at least partly on a comparison between the first and second timing information.