[tcdent]

PHYs are going away and fiber is going straight to the chip now, so while the article is correct, in the near future this will not be the case.

[sophacles]

The chip has a phy built into it on-die you mean. This affects timing for getting the signal from memory to the phy, but not necessary the switching times of transistors in the phy, nor the timings of turning the light on and off.