Circuit board

• US 20070275577A1
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Masumori, Kenta
• Application Number:
  US11/802,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20070275577A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 439/76.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/185 Mounting of expansion boards
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0295 adapted for choosing between different types or different locations of mounted components
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/117 Pads along the edge of rigid circuit boards, e.g. for pluggable connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/14 Structural association of two or more printed circuits providing electric connection to or between printed circuits H05K1/11, H01R12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/09954 More mounting possibilities, e.g. on same place of PCB, or by using different sets of edge pads

Abstract

An adapter card for extending functions of a computer includes a first male connector mounted to a female connector of an expansion slot provided to the computer in a way the first male connector can be inserted/removed into/from the female connector and a second male connector that corresponds to a bus architecture same as the first male connector in a way the second male connector can be inserted/removed into/from the female connector.

Claims

1. A circuit board comprising:

a main board; and

a plurality of connectors selectively inserted and removed into/from a same slot.

2. The circuit board according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of connectors includes a plurality of metal terminals electrically connected with the slot, and

the plurality of metal terminals provided to each of the plurality of connectors has same arrangement.

3. The circuit board according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of connectors are placed symmetric with respect to a center line perpendicular to a direction inserted and removed into/from the slot.

4. The circuit board according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of connectors are placed symmetric with respect to a pair of opposite sides, the opposite sides being parallel to the center line.

5. The circuit board according to claim 1, further comprising a device side connector provided separately from the plurality of connectors and also connected to an external device.

6. The circuit board according to claim 4, further comprising a device side connector provided separately from the plurality of connectors and also connected to an external device.

7. The circuit board according to claim 6, wherein the device side connector is placed to a side different from the pair of opposite sides.

8. The circuit board according to claim 3, wherein

the circuit board is fixed to a bracket, and

among the plurality of connectors, from a state another connector different from a predetermined connector is mounted to the bracket, the predetermined connector is rotated 180 degrees around the center line and mounted to the bracket.

9. The circuit board according to claim 8, further comprising a plurality of fixing parts to fix to the bracket,

wherein the plurality of fixing parts are placed symmetric with respect to the center line.

10. The circuit board according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of circuit devices electrically connected with each of the plurality of connectors; and

a plurality of wiring groups to connect the plurality of circuit devices with each of the plurality of connectors.

11. The circuit board according to claim 10, further comprising:

a predetermined circuit device electrically and independently connected to each of the plurality of circuit devices; and

a switching circuit to switch a connection of the predetermined circuit device with each of the plurality of circuit devices.

12. The circuit board according to claim 1, wherein the switching circuit selects a circuit device connected to a connector mounted to the slot from the plurality of circuit device according to the connector mounted to the slot.

13. The circuit board according to claim 11, wherein the predetermined circuit device is a physical layer controller electrically connected to the device side connector, and

the plurality of circuit devices are upper layer controller for the physical layer controller.

14. The circuit board according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of connectors are compliant to PCI bus standard, ISA bus standard or PCI-Express standard.

15. The circuit board according to claim 5, wherein the device side connector is compliant to standards including USB standard and IEEE 1394 standard.