Patent ID: 7620754

Claim:
A carrier module comprising: a XENPAK/X2 module body configured to be plugged into a XENPAK/X2 slot of a host, with the XENPAK/X2 module body having an interior edge and an exterior edge; a XENPAK/X2 70 -contact connector, disposed at the interior edge of the XENPAK/X2 module body, configured to interface with the XENPAK/X2 slot when the XENPAK/X2 module body is plugged into the XENPAK/X2 slot of the host, with the XENPAK/X2 connector including a first subset of contacts, a set of Rx XAUI contacts and a set of Tx XAUI contacts; a cage, configured to accept a non-XENPAK/X2 10 GE module pluggable into a non-XENPAK/X2 slot of a host, with the cage disposed on the exterior edge of the XENPAK/X2 module body and oriented so that an opening of the cage is disposed at the exterior edge of the XENPAK/X2 module so that a non-XENPAK/X2 module can be inserted into the cage; a module identification block, coupled to the first subset of contacts, configured to be used by the host to determine whether a carrier module holding a non-XENPAK/X2 module or a standard XENPAK/X2 module has been plugged into the XENPAK/X2 slot of the host; and interface circuitry coupling the cage and the XENPAK/X2 70-contact connector, with the interface circuitry configured to interface a non-XENPAK/X2 module, plugged into the non-XENPAK/X2 cage, with the XENPAK/X2 70-contact connector and to convert serial data received at the non-XENPAK/X2 module into parallel data received on the Rx XAUI contacts on the XENPAK/X2 70-contact connector and to convert parallel data transmitted on Tx XAUI contacts of the XENPAK/X2 70-contact connector to serial data transmitted on the non-XENPAK/X2 module.