Patent ID: 7039118

Claim:
A communication device comprising: a physical layer device having: a media driver connectable to a transmission medium; a media receiver connectable to the transmission medium; and a serializer/deserializer (serdes) connected to the media driver and the media receiver; a master circuit connected to the serdes, the master circuit having: a first physical layer data driver, the first physical layer data driver driving a millivolt differential signal; and a first physical layer data receiver; and a processing circuit having: an internal circuit; and a slave circuit connected to the internal circuit and the master circuit, the slave circuit having: a first processing data receiver connected to the first physical layer data driver, the first processing data receiver outputting a first signal in response to receiving the signal output from the first physical layer data driver; and a first processing data driver connected to the first physical layer data receiver, and connectable to the first processing data receiver.