Patent ID: 6990549

Claim:
A portable computer comprising: an I/O bus; a plurality of I/O ports; a docking connector including a low pin count serial I/O port; a low pin count I/O bridge device coupled to said I/O bus and said docking connector, said low pin count I/O bridge device including: an LPC controller coupled to said I/O bus and said docking connector adapted to detect whether the portable computer is coupled to a docking station via said docking connector, to route data transmissions from said I/O bus to said I/O ports if the portable computer is not coupled to a docking station via said docking connector, and to route data transmissions from said I/O bus to said low pin count serial I/O port of said docking connector if the portable computer is coupled to a docking station via said docking connector; and serialization logic coupled to the LPC controller adapted to serialize the data transmissions routed to said low pin count serial I/O port of said docking connector.