Patent ID: 8180935

Claim:
Apparatus integral with a PHY of a serial attached SCSI (SAS) device for coupling with another SAS device using an optical physical communication medium or using an electrical physical communication medium, the apparatus comprising: PHY control circuits coupled with a physical communication interface and adapted to control data exchanges on the physical communication medium; digital out of band (OOB) decoder logic coupled with the PHY control circuits, the digital OOB decoder logic adapted to detect receipt of a digitally encoded signal corresponding to a SAS OOB signal, the digitally encoded signal received from said another SAS device through the PHY control logic; and digital OOB encoder logic coupled with the PHY control circuits, the digital OOB encoder logic adapted to generate a digitally encoded signal corresponding to a SAS OOB signal, the digital OOB encoder further adapted to apply the digitally encoded signal to the PHY control circuits for transmission to said another SAS device, wherein the apparatus is operable to send and receive the digitally encoded signal without turning off a laser component of the apparatus where an optical physical communication medium is utilized, wherein the PHY control circuits are adapted to selectively utilize SAS OOB analog signaling or digitally encoded signals for communicating the SAS OOB signal to said another SAS device when the apparatus is coupled with an electrical physical communication medium, and wherein the PHY control circuits are further adapted utilize only digitally encoded signals for communicating the SAS OOB signal to said another SAS device such that SAS OOB analog signaling is not utilized when the apparatus is coupled with an optical physical communication medium.