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:
Aug. 08, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 06, 1997
Dennis Fahey, Oakland, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A stack position determination circuit in a stackable repeater is disclosed that includes an input connector, an output connector, an initial pin driving circuit, and a pin rotating circuit. The input connector includes a plurality of input connector repeater stack position pins arranged in an hierarchical order so that each input connector repeater stack position pin corresponds to a possible physical position of the repeater in a stack of repeaters. An output connector includes a plurality of output connector repeater stack position pins arranged in an hierarchical order so that each output connector repeater stack position pin corresponds to a possible position of the repeater in a stack of repeaters. An initial pin driving circuit is connected to an initial pin in the input connector repeater stack position pin hierarchical order. The initial pin corresponds to a first position in the stack of repeaters and the initial pin driving circuit is responsive to an initial repeater signal. The initial repeater signal has a state that is indicative of whether the repeater is physically connected in the first position in the stack of repeaters. The pin rotating circuit is connected between the input connector and the output connector. The pin rotating circuit connects each of the plurality of input connector repeater stack position pins to a pin selected from the plurality of output connector repeater stack position pins such that the position of the selected output connector repeater pin is one position lower in the output repeater stack position pin hierarchical order than the corresponding position in the input repeater stack position pin hierarchical order of the input repeater stack position pin that is connected to the selected output repeater stack position pin.