Apparatus and method for deskewing 1000 base-t ethernet physical layer signals

Abstract

The invention provides an Ethernet physical layer (PHY) receiver. Ethernet PHY signals are simultaneously transmitted through first, second, third, and fourth duplex channels. The Ethernet physical layer receiver comprises a deskew first-in first-out (FIFO) module and a deskew control module. The deskew FIFO module includes four deskew FIFO buffers for respectively holding the Ethernet PHY signals of the duplex channels, wherein the Ethernet PHY signals of the duplex channels are respectively retrieved from the deskew FIFO buffers for further processing through read points of the deskew FIFO buffers. The deskew control module derives a scrambler seed signal from an idle period data of the Ethernet PHY signals transmitted through a first one of the duplex channels, determines expected values of the idle period data of the Ethernet PHY signals of the second one and the third one according to the scrambler seed signal of the first one, and compares the expected values with the true idle period data of the second one and the third one to determine location adjustments of the read points of the FIFO buffers of the second one and the third one. The read points of the deskew FIFO buffers of the second one and the third one in the deskew FIFO module are then changed according to the location adjustments until the Ethernet PHY signals of the duplex channels read from the deskew FIFO buffers through the read points are successfully deskewed.