Method and apparatus to provide both high speed and low speed signaling from the high speed transceivers on an field programmable gate array

Abstract

A programmable logic device, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), is disclosed that allows for both high speed and low speed signal processing using the existing high speed transceiver. The programmable logic of the device may be programmed to include a sampling logic block that determines the low speed bit patterns from a device under test (DUT). The logic may further include a bit replication logic block that replicates bits such that the output of the device's high speed transceiver looks like a low speed signal to the DUT. The device, therefore, can communicate with the DUT at both the high and low speeds without the need for intermediate hardware.