Patent ID: 8447892

Claim:
An Apparatus comprising: a type one protocol device physical layer transmitter that performs a physical layer detection function to detect type one protocol device physical layer receivers attached via an interconnect, said detection function operating such that in response to a signal sent from the physical layer detection function, physical layer receivers having type one physical layer termination cause the interconnect to charge and physical layer receivers having type two physical layer termination appear as an open circuit to said physical layer detection function; a type two protocol device physical layer receiver having type two physical layer termination, the type two protocol device physical layer receiver being connected to the type one protocol device physical layer transmitter by at least one differential signal pair; and logic functional such that when said logic is coupled to the at least one differential signal pair between the type two protocol device physical layer receiver and the type one protocol device physical layer transmitter, the type one protocol device physical layer transmitter detection function detects the type two protocol device physical layer receiver as a type one protocol device physical layer receiver by causing the at least one differential signal to charge in order to indicate that the type two protocol device physical layer receiver is a valid type one protocol device physical layer receiver and to enable the type two protocol device physical layer receiver to functionally receive type one protocol communications directly from the type one protocol device physical layer transmitter over the at least one differential signal pair.