Abstract: A method of synchronizing a transmitter and a receiver, comprising: receiving a transmitted serial data stream. Creating an N-bit data sample from the serial data stream. Decoding the N-bit data sample by a ring decoding technique. The ring decoding technique comprises: creating a first code ring using the N-bit data sample, the first code ring having N ring-bit phase positions corresponding to N axis positions, with the N data bits of the N-bit data sample corresponding to one of the N ring-bit phase positions. Creating a pth Code Ring from a previous code ring using a preselected ring coding technique, the pth code ring having N ring-bit phase positions corresponding to N axis positions, with N data bits of the pth code ring corresponding to the N ring-bit phase positions of the pth code ring. Analyzing selected ones of the N data bits of the pth code ring for the presence of a sentinel condition.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for recovering a clock and/or data from a serial data stream. A multiplexer, a reference clock, and a snapshot register and decoder using ring decoding decodes an N-bit data sample extracting recovered clock phase to determine a clock phase for extracting data.