Channel Link Modes on the Pattern Generator
Pattern generator Link Modes are mainly used to indicate how the two channel output will be synchronized with, and whether there is a requirement for the two channels to be able to be synchronized with if they are bit-interleaved. When in Ch-0, Ch-1, and Unlinked modes, no special preparation is necessary for the output channel configurations. In these modes, each channel transmits the selected data patterns with no regard to selecting certain phase alignments between the channels. In fact, in these modes, all the data patterns are transmitted with the same phase alignment.
In Interleaved mode when transmitting a pseudorandom test pattern, however, the two channels are purposefully phase offset by half the length of the pseudrorandom pattern as they are transmitted. This preparation makes it possible to bit-interleave the two channels to form a 2X bit-rate pseudorandom pattern of the same type as the sub-channels.
Any pseudorandom pattern, if bit-deinterleaved into two component sub-channels, creates two half-speed sub-channels that are also pseudorandom patterns of the same type, and the two sub-channel patterns will be offset in bit-phase by 1/2 the length of the pseudorandom pattern. This is a remarkably useful fact that is not widely known, which has many useful applications in digital PRBS testing!