Patent ID: 7983259

Claim:
A medium access control (MAC) device comprising: a first set of transmit pins configured to receive, from a host, (i) first transmit data signals and (ii) first transmit control signals, wherein the first transmit data signals are received on a first subset of the first set of transmit pins; a second set of transmit pins configured to output, to a physical layer (PHY) device, (i) second transmit data signals and (ii) second transmit control signals, wherein the second transmit data signals are output on a second subset of the second set of transmit pins, and wherein the second subset includes fewer transmit pins than the first subset; and a first encoder configured to encode two of the first transmit control signals received on two of the first set of transmit pins, and generate one of the second transmit control signals output on one of the second set of transmit pins.