A data source circuit and a complementary data acquisition circuit which can transmit and receive data at a higher rate than a conventional data source circuit which uses similar fabrication technology. A data source circuit of the present invention has an input for receiving a periodic source clock signal having a period T; a synchronization signal generator for generating, based on said downstream-clock signal, a series of one or more periodic synchronization signals having periods substantially equal to T, each synchronization signal being delayed from a previous synchronization signal; and a transmitter for transmitting one or more sub-words of a multi-bit data word, each sub-word having one or more bits, separate ones of said one or more sub-words being transmitted responsive to separate progressively delayed combined pairs of said synchronization signals. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention particularly suited for use in a point to point (e.g. a ring-type) data network, an acquisition circuit and a source circuit are integrated as a receiver/retransmission node.