Indicating presence of a portion of data corresponding to a predetermined pattern at a reception datapath of a physical layer

An apparatus, comprising:

• a data sampling circuit to oversample data at a reception datapath of a physical layer device;
• and
• a logic circuit, comprising:
• a correlation logic to generate a first signal, the first signal indicative of relationships between patterns exhibited by portions of oversampled data and a predetermined pattern;
• a feature observation logic to generate a second signal, the second signal indicative of an observed feature of the first signal, the feature indicative of a highest relationship between patterns exhibited by respective portions of oversampled data and the predetermined pattern;
• and
• a synchronization logic to generate a third signal, the third signal indicative of a portion of the data corresponding to the observed feature.