The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 18, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 26, 1994
Craig A MacKenna, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Zilog, Inc., Campbell, CA (US);
Abstract
In an environment where a contact of a mother board is connected to a logic HIGH level voltage through a strong pull-up resistor, and a corresponding contact of an add-in board is connected to an open-drain driver, such that a control line driven by the open-drain driver is provided through the two contacts in normal mode operation when the two contacts make electrical connection, a circuit to sense whether or not the contact of the add-in board is making electrical connection with the contact of the mother board includes a weak pull-down resistor connected at one end to a node connecting the output of the open-drain driver to the contact of the add-in board, and connected at the other end to a ground reference. Accordingly, a voltage detected on the node is pulled up close to the logic HIGH level voltage if the contact of the add-in board is making electrical connection with the contact of the mother board and the open-drain driver is turned off, and is pulled down close to ground if the contact of the add-in board is not making electrical connection with the contact of the mother board and the open-drain driver is turned off. The voltage thus detected is provided to other circuitry on the add-in board, and/or back to a host computer on the mother board.