Patent ID: 8090064

Claim:
A signal processing method for frequency and phase acquisition without using an external reference clock, comprising: receiving a data signal comprising a plurality of bits, the data signal having a frequency and a phase; without using an external reference clock, generating a clock signal having a frequency and a phase; acquiring a plurality of samples from the data signal at a sampling rate determined by the clock signal; determining whether a transition point from a first bit in the plurality of bits to a second bit in the plurality of bits occurs within the plurality of samples; if it is determined that the transition point occurs within the plurality of samples, transitioning from a first state to a second state in a state machine, the state machine comprising a plurality of states; and: if the transition from the first state to the second state does not cause the plurality of states in the state machine to be exceeded, where the first state and the second state are adjacent to one another, adjusting the phase of the clock signal to correlate with the phase of the data signal; and if the transition from the first state to the second state causes the plurality of states in the state machine to be exceeded, where the first state comprises an outermost state in the plurality of states and the second state comprises a state that is separated from the first state by one or more intervening states, adjusting the frequency of the clock signal to correlate with the frequency of the data signal.