Computer device having multiple linked parallel busses and associated method

摘要

A computer device includes an interface board, a plurality of peripheral component interface (PCI) busses on the interface board, and a plurality of device card connectors carried by the interface board. The plurality of device card connectors include at least one first device card connector coupled to first and second PCI busses synchronous with one another, and at least one second device card connector coupled to the second PCI bus and to a third PCI bus asynchronous with the second PCI bus. The PCI busses are thus connected so that the PCI busses may be added in groups according to the number of device card connectors supported by the interface board, and not by the loading constraints of the PCI busses themselves. By defining both synchronous and asynchronous device card connectors, device cards requiring either synchronous or asynchronous communications may be utilized by the computer device. Each device card includes an interface bridge for connecting to a respective asynchronous or synchronous device card connector.