High speed integrated circuit interconnection having proximally located

Abstract

An active integrated circuit socket includes plural pin sockets receiving corresponding pins of an integrated circuit and plural socket pins making electrical contact with a printed circuit board. At least one active electronic component requiring electrical power for operation connects a pin sockets to a corresponding socket pin. The active electronic component may be a single ended input to differential output driver, a differential input to single ended output driver, a single ended to differential input/output transceiver or a voltage level shifter. These active components may include passive termination resistors. The single ended to differential transceiver may further include an enable input determining the direction of data transmission. This invention may be employed as an electronic system upgrade product including at least two active integrated circuit sockets connected via a flexible sheet including a plurality of electrical conductors connecting differential signal lines. The flexible sheet may dispose a grounded conductor between each pair of differential signal conductors. The differential signals on the printed circuit board or the flexible sheet enabled by this invention are better able to support high speed data transfer than the single ended signals at the pins of the integrated circuits.