Data recovery apparatus and methods

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has as an object to provide data recovery apparatus for recovering data from multiple low data-rate data streams, without requiring the use of separate circuitry to eliminate the time skew from the data streams.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention is directed to data recovery apparatus for the recovery of N channels of binary and/or equivalent encoded versions of data signal portions from N effectively separate transmission paths, where N is an integer, the N channels of binary data signal portions being respectively transmitted in synchronism into the N transmission paths.
The data recovery apparatus comprises voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) means, responsive to a VCO control signal, for generating a VCO clock signal having the frequency (determined by the VCO control signal, and phase comparator means, responsive to the VCO clock signal and the N channels of binary data signal portions, for providing a phase difference control signal which represents phase differences between the VCO clock signal and the N channels of binary data signal portions.
The data recovery apparatus also comprises memory means, including inputs for receiving the N channels of binary data signal portions and responsive to the VCO clock signal, for storing data of the N channels of binary data signal portions at a predetermined phase of each clock period of the VCO clock signal, and control means, responsive to the phase difference control signal, for generating the VCO control signal effective to maintain a relatively low respective phase difference between the VCO clock signal and each of the N channels of binary data signal portions