US Patent 7313712 Link power saving state

Disclosed are embodiments of a method, apparatus and system for a low power state for a point-to-point link. During the low power state, the signal on both conductors of a differential transmit pair are driven to electrical idle. Analog activity detectors are enabled during the low power state and are disabled during normal power state. Exit from the low power state does not require a physical layer re-initialization sequence. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.