Patent ID: 7536579

Claim:
A skew detection apparatus for detecting the amount of skew in at least one of a plurality of transmitting lanes, in relation to a reference lane, of a parallel data transmission system, comprising: (a) a plurality of transmitting lane pairs with one of a plurality of transceivers for each of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs, said plurality of transceivers comprising a transmitter and a receiver, wherein one of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs is a reference lane and one of said plurality of transceivers is a reference transceiver; and (b) one or more of a plurality of feedback signals, wherein one or more of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs are coupled at said transmitters to one or more of a plurality of status signals at said receivers via said plurality of feedback signals; and (c) an amount of skew in at least one of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs, wherein said amount of skew is determined by a iterative process, said iterative process comprising a algorithm which is implemented to systematically iterate through a plurality of skew injection parameters for each of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs to identify one or more offsetting skew amounts to be injected into any of said plurality of transmitting lane pairs, at the transmit side of a circuit, to re-align said plurality of transmitting lane pairs and achieve transmission lane alignment.