Alternative protocol over physical layer

A method comprising:

• selectively causing a multiplexer-demultiplexer to couple a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) physical layer circuit through a protocol translation circuit to a Gen-Z data link layer controller;
• and
• at the protocol translation circuit, receiving traffic data from the Gen-Z data link layer controller in a Gen-Z format, encapsulating the Gen-Z format traffic data in a PCIe format, and passing the encapsulated traffic data through the multiplexer-demultiplexer to the PCIe physical layer circuit;
• and
• transmitting the encapsulated traffic data over a communication link from the PCIe physical layer circuit.

A data processing platform comprising:

• a central processing unit;
• a dual-protocol link controller coupled to said central processing unit and comprising:
• a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) physical layer circuit coupled to a communication link and providing a data path over said communication link;
• a first data link layer controller which operates according to a PCIe protocol;
• a second data link layer controller which operates according to a Gen-Z protocol;
• a multiplexer-demultiplexer coupled to the first data link layer controller and the PCIe physical layer circuit;
• and
• a protocol translation circuit to the multiplexer-demultiplexer and the second data link layer controller, the protocol translation circuit receiving traffic data from the second data link layer controller in a Gen-Z format, encapsulating the Gen-Z format traffic data to a PCIe format, and passing the encapsulated traffic data to the multiplexer-demultiplexer.