Patent ID: 8667311

Claim:
A method for communication, comprising: in a network interface controller that supports energy efficient Ethernet, performing using one or more circuits in said network interface controller: transitioning a Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCI-E) core from a low power PCI-E state to a full power PCI-E state in response to a PHY core in said network interface controller initiating a transition from a low power mode of the PHY core to a full power mode, where said PCI-E core transitions from said low power PCI-E state to said full power PCI-E state before said PHY core receives an Ethernet packet and where transitioning from said low power PCI-E state to said full power PCI-E state is started after a timer expires; and configuring said timer for a third time period after said transition of said PHY core from said low power mode to said full power mode is started, if a first time period corresponding to said transition from said low power PCI-E state to said full power PCI-E state is less than a second time period corresponding to said transition of said PHY core from said low power mode to said full power mode or a speed of a network interface to said network interface controller is less than a threshold value.