Clock-and-data-recovery system having a multi-phase clock generator for one or more channel circuits

Abstract

In one embodiment of the invention, a clock-and-data-recovery (CDR) system has a multi-phase clock generator that generates a plurality of phase-offset clock signals and one or more channel circuits, each receiving a (different) input data signal and all of the phase-offset clock signals and generates an output data stream and a recovered clock signal. Each channel circuit has a plurality of data registers (e.g., flip-flops), each receiving the input data signal at its clock input port and a different one of the phase-offset clock signals at its data input port, such that the flip-flop is triggered at each (rising) edge in the input data signal. The channel circuit processes the outputs from the different flip-flops to select an appropriate phase-offset clock signal for use in sampling the input data signal to generate the output data stream, where the recovered clock signal is generated from the selected phase-offset clock signal.