Patent ID: 7940877

Claim:
A method of detecting phase of transitions in a serial data signal comprising: using a clock signal to time the capturing of samples of the serial data signal at the rate of one sample per data bit in the serial data signal; periodically incrementing phase of the clock signal by an amount that is less than the duration of a bit in the serial data signal so that a plurality of different phases of the clock signal are used one after another, at least one occurrence of the incrementing causing one bit in the serial data signal to be unsampled in the capturing of the samples; identifying any particular phase of the clock signal that causes successive ones of the samples to have a relationship to one another that is abnormal for successive bits in the serial data signal as a result of the incrementing to said particular phase of the clock signal causing one bit in the serial data signal to be unsampled in the capturing of the samples, and as a result of the identifying, thereby detecting the phase of transitions in the serial data signal; selecting a phase of the clock signal that is not identified in the identifying for use in sampling the serial data signal after the phase of transitions in the serial data signal has been detected; causing the serial data signal to conform to a predetermined training data pattern during the using, the periodically incrementing, and the identifying; and after the selecting: following the training data pattern in the serial data signal with data that is not predetermined.