Abstract: A method and system for automatically providing termination to a SCSI I/O bus within a data processing system is disclosed. An inline terminator is provided for use within a data processing system. The inline terminator provides a connection between a first controller and an I/O bus utilizing a plurality of connection pins including a device removal detection pin. The inline terminator includes a terminator circuit and a control circuit coupled to the device removal detection pin to detect whether the controller and bus are connected. In one embodiment, the detection pin is a short ground pin on the SCSI bus that is not associated with a signal or differential signal pair. The terminator circuit is activated when the controller and bus are disconnected and deactivated otherwise to automatically terminate the I/O bus.