Patent ID: 7061405

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a stream of electronic digital data having a quantity (n) of bits of parallel data transmitted electronically at a first clock rate (R 1 ), the quantity (n) being greater than or equal to 2; transforming the stream of electronic digital data in at least one loss-less compression operation into a first stream of electronic serial data that is electronically transmitted at a second clock rate (R 2 ), wherein (R 2 )=(R 1 )×(n), the stream of electronic digital data being transformed without formatting the data for use with a protocol; transmitting the data in a serial stream over a link; converting the data transmitted over the link in a serial stream in at least one loss-less de-compression operation into an output stream of electronic digital data having the quantity (n) of bits of parallel data transmitted electronically at the first clock rate (R 1 ); transforming the first stream of electronic digital data into an intermediate stream of electronic digital data having a quantity (m) of bits of parallel data transmitted electronically at an intermediate clock rate (R i ), wherein (n)<(m)≦2 and (m) is a factor of (n); and transforming the intermediate stream of electronic digital data into the first stream of electronic serial data.