US Patent 7606486 Protocol specific transceiver firmware

An optical transceiver (or optical transmitter or optical receiver) that has at least one processor, and a memory. The optical transceiver is capable of implementing any one of a number of protocols depending on how the optical transceiver is configured in microcode. In order to so configure the optical transceiver, the optical transceiver is provided with one of a particular set of microcode, each of the set of microcode being capable of implementing a different protocol when received into the memory and executed. To implement the protocol, the provided microcode is then executed by the optical transceiver. To implement a different protocol, different microcode may be provided to the optical transceiver and executed.