Patent ID: 7885321

Claim:
A device, comprising: (a) an interface to a media independent interface; (b) auto-negotiation circuitry coupleable to multiple data lanes of a printed circuit board having conductive traces providing the multiple data lanes, each of the multiple data lanes to carry respective encoded symbol values; and (c) interposed between and coupled to the media independent interface and the auto-negotiation circuitry, multiple sets of PHY components, each set comprising: (1) a physical coding section (PCS) logic; and (2) a physical medium attachment (PMA) logic; wherein the auto-negotiation circuitry comprises logic configured to: send transmission capabilities encoded as bits in a link base code word to a partner device coupled to the printed circuit board, the transmission capabilities including at least one 1-Gigabit/second capability, at least one 10-Gigabit/second capability, and at least one four-data lane communication capability over the printed circuit board wherein the auto-negotiation circuitry sends transmission capabilities over a single of the four-data lanes; receive transmission capabilities encoded as bits in a link base code word from the partner device; select a highest common denominator transmission capability according to a priority scheme of the transmission capabilities sent to the partner device and the transmission capabilities received from the partner device; and configure transmit and receive functions of the multiple sets of PHY components based on the selected highest common denominator transmission capability.