System and method supporting auto-recovery in a transceiver system

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed to aid a transceiver chip, in a serial data communications system, in recovering from a system-side, out-bound data clocking problem. If a problem with a primary clock signal, used to clock data from a system-side of a transceiver chip through at least a part of an out-bound data path of the transceiver chip, is detected, then a more reliable secondary clock signal is substituted for the primary clock signal. Once it is determined that the primary clock signal has recovered, the primary clock signal is switched back to and certain discrete circuits of the out-bound data path of the transceiver chip are automatically reset in hardware without the need for system level intervention to avoid any problems due to clock glitches on the primary clock signal during the switching.