Patent ID: 7073080

Claim:
A system for dynamically regulating voltage in a data communications system, comprising: a data unit operable to generate a data stream; a bit error detection unit communicatively coupled to the data unit, wherein the bit error detection unit is operable to generate an error signal indicating a bit error rate in the data stream; a processing unit operably coupled to the data unit and the bit error detection unit, wherein the processing unit to process the error signal to determine if the bit error rate is less than a maximum acceptable value and to generate a voltage regulation reference signal to incrementally decrease a voltage level provided to the data unit if the bit error rate is less than the maximum acceptable value, until the maximum acceptable value or a minimum voltage level is reached, but if the bit error rate is not less than the maximum acceptable value, the processing unit to generate the voltage regulation reference signal to incrementally increase the voltage level provided to the data unit until the maximum acceptable value or a maximum voltage level is reached, the processing unit to continually monitor the error signal to increase or decrease the voltage level provided to the data unit to maintain the voltage level at the maximum acceptable value for the bit error rate; and a power management unit operably coupled to the data unit, and the processing unit, wherein the power management unit uses the voltage regulation reference signal to control the voltage level provided to the data unit to maintain the bit error rate at the maximum acceptable value.