Abstract: An Expandable communications bus system for transferring data between a plurality of devices. The expandable communications bus system is comprised of a plurality of communication busses each capable of transferring n bits of data between devices. A device may be connected to any multiple of the communication busses. Mn bits of data may be transferred at one time between devices using m busses. Other busses in the system transfer can data between other devices while the transfer over m busses is occurring allowing for more efficient use of bus resources. For each communications bus that is connected to a device, the device has an interface that controls the transfer of data over the communications bus. Arbitration for a bus is performed by the interface of each device connected to the bus.

Abstract: An interconnect bus system that includes an interconnect bus having a plurality of interconnect bus conductors, a reference circuit for placing a reference signal on certain of the interconnect bus conductors, and at least one electronic circuit module having a plurality of electronic circuit module conductors in addition to a configuration circuit, a bus interface, and an application circuit thereon. The electronic circuit module conductors can be in one of four physical orientations relative to the interconnect bus conductors. The configuration circuit can sense the reference signal and determine the electronic circuit module's physical orientation relative to the interconnect bus. The configuration circuit configures the bus interface based on the present physical orientation.