Patent ID: 8527677

Claim:
A method, comprising: with input-output circuitry, receiving an input data stream over a serial communications path that includes first and second streams of bonded data bytes; with a third circuit, separating the input data stream into the first and second streams of bonded data bytes; with a first circuit, producing a first stream of unbonded data bytes from the first stream of bonded data bytes; and with a second circuit, producing a second stream of unbonded data bytes from the second stream of bonded data bytes, wherein the serial communications path comprises a single lane of a multilane communications link, wherein receiving the input data stream comprises receiving the input data stream over the single lane, wherein each stream of bonded data bytes has at least one clock cycle in which at least one byte from a first packet and at least one byte from a second packet are conveyed, and wherein each clock cycle in each stream of unbonded data bytes conveys bytes from no more than one packet.