An exemplary optoelectronic transceiver 100 incorporating features of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The transceiver 100 contains a receiver circuit, a transmitter circuit, a power supply voltage 19 and ground connections 20. The receiver circuit of the transceiver includes a Receiver Optical Subassembly (ROSA) 102, which may contain a mechanical fiber receptacle as well as a photodiode and pre-amplifier (preamp) circuit. The ROSA 102 is in turn connected to a post-amplifier (postamp) integrated circuit 106, the function of which is to generate a fixed output swing digital signal which is connected to outside circuitry via the RX+ and RX- pins 17. The postamp circuit 106 also often provides a digital output signal known as Signal Detect or Loss of Signal indicating the presence or absence of suitably strong optical input. The postamp circuit 106 does not necessarily have to be used to generate the Signal Detect or Loss of signal. In alternative embodiments, the postamp circuit 106 could be replaced with a CDR ("Clock Data Recovery") or a demux chip, which embodiments are not shown.