Patent ID: 7308059

Claim:
A dual link receiver that terminates a primary link having a plurality of primary link channels and that terminates a secondary link having a plurality of secondary link channels, the receiver comprising: a primary link receiver comprising: a primary link front end that terminates a plurality of conductors carrying the plurality of primary link channels and that recovers the plurality of primary link channels; a primary link channel alignment block coupled to the primary link front end that receives the plurality of primary link channels and that channel aligns the plurality of primary link channels to produce a plurality of channel aligned primary link channels; a secondary link receiver comprising: a secondary link front end that terminates a plurality of conductors carrying the plurality of secondary link channels and that recovers the plurality of secondary link channels; and a secondary link channel alignment block coupled to the secondary link front end that receives the plurality of secondary link channels and that channel aligns the plurality of secondary link channels to produce a plurality of channel aligned secondary link channels; and a link alignment block operably coupled to the primary link channel alignment block and to the secondary link channel alignment block, wherein the link alignment block operates to align the plurality of channel aligned secondary link channels with the plurality of channel aligned primary link channels by introducing a fixed amount of delay into the plurality of channel aligned primary link channels and introduces a variable amount of delay into the plurality of channel aligned secondary link channels.