Abstract: A programmable interconnect system having a plurality of PICs connected via a plurality of buses where each bus may have two or more branches connecting the PICs is disclosed. Generally speaking, for a system with N PICs, there can be N−1 different type of buses having 2 to N corresponding branches to the N PICs. For example, for a four PIC programmable interconnect system, there can be three types of buses connecting the PICs, a two-branch bus, a three-branch bus, and a four-branch bus. Note that the term “bus” refers to one or more signal paths connecting the PICs. For each type of buses, there can be several layouts.