Patent ID: 7698088

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: conductors to transmit signals; and a transmitter coupled with the conductors including transmitter test circuitry, an encoder, and one or more multiplexers to: obtain a set of test properties for testing of an interface between the apparatus and a receiving apparatus to define types of test patterns to be transmitted to the receiving apparatus, the test properties including a sequence of class signatures, the class signatures representing a partition of all possible codewords into subsets; embed the set of test properties in test pattern signals using the one or more multiplexers, the test pattern signals being encoded by the encoder, wherein the test pattern signals includes a sequential pattern of codewords that are modified by the transmitter test circuitry in order to embed the test properties in the codewords, and transmit the test pattern signals with the embedded test properties to the conductors for transmission to the receiving apparatus; wherein the transmitter test circuitry further includes: test encoding functions to provide encoded bits in response to bits from a stream of signals; and class generating functions to provide the sequence of class signatures in response to the encoded bits and control signals.