US Patent 9219560 Multi-protocol SerDes PHY apparatus

In one embodiment, a multiprotocol interface includes a physical layer transmitter unit configured to transmit data from synchronous media access control layer units and asynchronous media access control layer units. The multiprotocol interface also includes a physical layer receiver unit configured to receive data and to deliver the received data to the synchronous media access control layer units and the asynchronous media access control layer units. The physical layer transmitter unit and the physical layer receiver unit are both configured to operate in either an asynchronous mode or a synchronous mode. The physical layer transmitter unit and the physical layer receiver unit transmit and receive only with the asynchronous media access control units, and physical layer transmitter unit and the physical layer receiver unit transmit and receive only with the synchronous media access control units.