Ethernet physical layer device having an integrated physical coding and forward error correction sub-layers

A physical layer transceiver comprising:

• a physical coding sub-layer;
• a forward error correction sub-layer;
• and
• a pair of physical coding sub-layer and forward error correction sub-layer integration blocks comprising:
• a first integration block in communication with and operably connected to the physical coding sub-layer and the forward error correction sub-layer, the first integration block halting, for a first number of clock cycles, a transmitter data stream in portions of a transmitter data path within the physical coding sub-layer and the forward error correction sub-layer so as to compensate for code word mark insertion into the transmitter data stream by a code word mark inserter, the code word mark inserter being in a portion of the transmitter data path within the forward error correction sub-layer;
• and,
• a second integration block in communication with and operably connected to the physical coding sub-layer and the forward error correction sub-layer, the second integration block halting, for a second number of clock cycles, a receiver data stream in portions of a receiver data path within the physical coding sub-layer and the forward error correction sub-layer so as to compensate for code word mark removal from the receiver data stream by a code word mark remover, the code word mark remover being in a portion of the receiver data path with the forward error correction sub-layer.