Patent ID: 7024607

Claim:
An information transmission link comprising: a transition minimized differential signaling encoder coupled to receive digital data from a plurality of first parallel lines to encode the digital data into encoded digital data on a plurality of second parallel lines; a pseudo-random binary sequence generator circuit to generate test data on a plurality of third parallel lines; a multiplexer coupled to the second parallel lines to receive the encoded digital data and coupled to the third parallel lines to receive the test data, the multiplexer to transmit the encoded digital data on a plurality of fourth parallel lines in a normal mode of operation and being coupled to receive a test signal to put the multiplexer in a test mode of operation to transmit the test data to the fourth parallel lines; a serializer coupled to the fourth parallel lines to receive and serialize the encoded digital data into encoded and serial digital data in the normal mode of operation and to receive and serialize the test data into serial test data in the test mode of operation, the serializer being coupled to transmit the encoded and serial digital data to a transmission medium in the normal mode of operation and to transmit the serial test data to the transmission medium in the test mode of operation; and wherein the encoder, the serializer, the sequence generator circuit, and the multiplexer are fabricated in a single integrated circuit chip.