Method and appartus for exchanging data between devices operating at different clock rates
AssigneeCoriant Operations, Inc.
InventorJohn M. Golding
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Source-synchronous communications between networked devices can be hindered by differing clock rates and data interface formats among the devices. By implementing a plurality of clock converters, a data interface format of a transmitting device is converted to a data interface format compatible with a receiving device. The clock converters provide a clock signal based on the source-synchronous data clock, and having a phase controlled with respect to an associated data signal. As a result, data exchange between devices operating at different clock rates is made possible.
Claims18
An apparatus for converting a data interface format to enable data exchange between devices operating at different clock rates, the apparatus comprising:
- a clock up-converter configured to derive an up-converted clock signal from a first clock signal at a first clock rate of a first device and to transmit the up-converted clock signal to a second device, the up-converted clock signal having a phase controlled with respect to a phase of an associated first data signal;
- a clock down-converter configured to derive a down-converted clock signal from a second clock signal at a second clock rate of the second device and to transmit the down-converted clock signal to the first device, the down-converted clock signal having a phase controlled with respect to a phase of an associated second data signal, the second clock rate being different from the first clock rate;
- and
- a controller configured to align the up-converted and down-converted clock signals with the associated first and second data signals at startup of the first and second devices by causing the devices to transmit alignment patterns and adjust phases of the derived up-converted and down-converted clock signals as a function of the alignment patterns.
A method of converting a data interface format to enable data exchange between devices operating at different clock rates, the method comprising:
- up-converting a first clock signal at a first clock rate from a first device to an up-converted clock signal, the up-converted clock signal having a phase controlled with respect to a phase of an associated first data signal;
- down-converting a second clock signal at a second clock rate from a second device to a down-converted clock signal, the down-converted clock signal having a phase controlled with respect to a phase of an associated second data signal, the second clock rate being different from the first clock rate;
- transmitting the up-converted and down-converted clock signals respectively to the second and first devices;
- causing the first and second devices to transmit alignment patterns to align the up-converted and down-converted clock signals with the associated first and second data signals at startup of the first and second devices;
- and
- adjusting phases of the up-converted and down-converted clock signals as a function of the alignment patterns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.