Patent ID: 7831653

Claim:
A template of integrated circuit for a plurality of data transmission protocols, the template comprising: (a) a plurality of input/output (I/O) blocks; (b) a plurality of data register transfer level logic (RTL) shells encapsulating the I/O blocks, the plurality of RTL shells encapsulating logic of a diffused hardmac and including: serializer/deserializer (SERDES) hard macro components, clock generators, microprocessors, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus controller and a universal serial bus (USB) bus controller, wherein the plurality of RTL shells are configured for providing a logical interface for connecting signals to external chip I/Os; (c) a plurality of physical layers (PHYs) connected to each of the plurality of I/O blocks; and at least one of the plurality of I/O blocks and the connected one of the plurality of PHYs are established to transmit and receive data in a first protocol, and at a second one of the plurality of I/O blocks and a connected second one of the plurality of PHYs are established to transmit and receive data in a second protocol, wherein at least one of the plurality of PHYs is stubbed; (d) a plurality of configurable gate arrays, a first portion of which is configured into a first protocol layer connected to at least one of the plurality of PHYs consistent with the first protocol, and a second portion of the plurality of gate arrays is programmed to establish a second protocol layer connected to at least a second one of the plurality of PHYs consistent with the second protocol; (e) a plurality of memory arrays generated from diffused memory and/or gate array configured to establish the first protocol layer and a second portion of which is configured to establish the second protocol layer, wherein the template is further configured for translating data between the first PHY in the first protocol and the second PHY in the second protocol.