Patent ID: 8503515

Claim:
A communication system comprising: an integrated circuit chip that includes: a switch fabric; control logic that controls the transmission of digital signals through the switch fabric; a transceiver block comprising one or more transceivers, each transmitting digital signals between the control logic and a corresponding external device; a data converter physical interface comprising one or more data converters, each performing a conversion between analog and digital signals, wherein digital signals associated with the one or more data converters are routed through the switch fabric; and a signal processing engine coupled to the control logic, wherein the signal processing engine performs on-chip processing of digital signals received from the transceiver block and the data converter physical interface; and a remote device, external to the integrated circuit chip, wherein the remote device is coupled to one of the transceivers of the transceiver block, wherein digital signals transmitted to the data converter physical interface are transmitted to the remote device in parallel.