Patent ID: 8332729

Claim:
A system comprising: a first device; a second device coupled to the first device via a serial communication link, wherein the serial communication link includes a plurality of a communication lanes; wherein the first device and the second device are configured to communicate by operating the serial communication link in a normal mode and a degraded mode; wherein during operation in the normal mode, the first device and the second device send frames of information to each other via the serial communication link, wherein the frame of information includes a number of data bits and a number of error protection bits; wherein in response to either the first device or the second device detecting a failure of one or more of the plurality of communication lanes, the first device is configured to cause the serial communication link to operate in a degraded mode by remapping the plurality of communication lanes to unmap the one or more failed communication lanes, and to reformat and send the frame of information on the remaining communication lanes such that the number of data bits is reduced and the number of error protection bits is unchanged; and wherein the first device is configured to switch the serial communication link from the normal mode to the degraded mode automatically and without software intervention.