US Patent 8165471 Form factor adapter module

According to one example embodiment, a form factor adapter module may include a small form factor (SFF) host connector, an X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector, and a serial to XAUI transceiver. The SFF host connector may be configured receive a small form factor pluggable (SFP or SFP+) module and to transmit and receive data according to a Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII) or Serializer-deserializer Framer Interface (SFI) protocol. The X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector may be configured to mate with an X2 or XENPAK edge finger socket and to transmit and receive data according to a Ten Gigabit Ethernet Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI) protocol. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be coupled to both the SFF host connector and the X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be configured to convert data between the SGMII or SFI protocol and the XAUI protocol.