Abstract: A two wire serial bus is connected between different circuit boards in a complex electrical system. The two wire serial bus may be used to receive status information about each of the circuit boards in the system. A master control processor on one of the circuit boards controls which of the other circuit boards are active on the serial bus. Each of the non-master circuit boards includes a series of switches that electrically isolate or connect portions of the two wire serial bus from one another. Through the series of switches, both the master control processor and processors local to each of the other circuit boards may simultaneously access different portions of the serial bus.

Abstract: A network router includes hot-swappable physical interface cards that allow the router to communicate using a variety of network technologies. Power to the interface cards is sequentially ramped to avoid disruptive power surges. The router includes multiple power supplies, a power monitor circuit, power on/off control circuitry, and a controller. The controller detects the presence/absence of the physical interface cards and controls the power monitor circuit and power on/off control circuit to sequentially ramp or sequentially remove power to the physical interface cards.

Abstract: A mechanism for routing a communication cell in a cell switching communication controller that employs multiple path identifier masking functions selected by a header control field in the communication cell and that employs a content addressable memory comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry stores a pre configured local termination identifier and a pre configured pass through identifier.