Traditional physical interfaces use RGMII or GMII designs with a parallel line interface between GigE MAC and PHY. These interfaces utilize 25 traces running at 125MHz or 12 traces at 250MHz, respectively. With the new Serial GMII (SGMII) interface, parallel connections can be shifted to serial allowing for longer connections and eliminating the need for synchronized signaling. This SGMII format uses 4 or 8 traces that all run at 1.25GHz, giving a 4x performance increase over traditional PHYs. Additionally, the Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) format greatly improves signal integrity.