Patent ID: 8392767

Claim:
A method for testing and configuring data channels of series-connected devices, each having input ports and output ports, the method comprising: simultaneously asserting an input port enable and an output port enable signal to configure each port of the series-connected devices to simultaneously operate in a single-bit data width mode; applying a test pattern to M input ports of a first device of the series-connected devices, the M input ports having a corresponding M output ports at a last device of the series-connected devices, M being an integer number greater than one, each of the data channels defining a data path between corresponding pairs of input and output ports; transferring the test pattern from each of the M input ports of the first device to the corresponding M output ports of the last device of the series-connected devices if the data channels are functional; determining an absence of the test pattern from N output ports of the last device of the series-connected devices, N being an integer number not greater than M; and configuring each of the series-connected devices to have M-N active data channels.