COMMUNICATING DATA IN A SELECTED ONE OF MULTIPLE PROTOCOLS

摘要

An Ethernet communication interface (1) (for use in equipment (3) such as an (5) Ethernet switch) has a set of interface pins (7) and an internal control logic which assigns respective functions to the interface pins (7) which are consistent with a selected protocol. In other words, the same set of interface pins (7) is used in different ways in the different protocols. This means that any number of protocols may be supported using only a number of interface pins which is as low as the highest number of interface pins required by any single one of the standards. The interface (1) is initialised using initialisation pins (9) among the interface pins (7) which, during an initialisation phase, receive signals indicating which protocol to use. The equipment (3) can ensure that the interface (1) functions in the desired protocol by supplying the corresponding signals to the initialisation pins during the initialisation phase. During the communication phase the input pins (9) are "pin-strapped", to perform the role of output pins.