| 摘要 |
In computer systems, different hardware devices communicate over an electronic bus. Typically, a system board (or motherboard) contains some devices and several bus connectors; other devices are mounted on printed circuit boards which plug into the bus connectors. In this invention, a special Modular Bus Extender (MBE) is used to highly modularize the construction of systems from a multiple of boards and devices. Each connector contains a bus segment that connects to other segments in a consistent manner, as well as allowing a board to connect to the bus. In addition, the usual design of a system board calls for a number of bus connectors on the component side of the board. In one embodiment of this invention, a single ISA bus connector is mounted on the one side and a PCI or VESA local bus connector is mounted on the other side. This arrangement, combined with the use of the Modular Bus Extender (MBE), allows expansion of the system by simply plugging new devices into the appropriate (MBE) and connecting them to the matching bus connector on one of the two sides of the system board, or connecting them to an existing MBE already connected to the system board. There are considerable packaging and other advantages to the construction of systems using this approach.
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