Patent ID: 7275810

Claim:
An ink cartridge for mounting on a carriage of an inkjet printing apparatus to supply ink to a printhead of the inkjet printing apparatus through an ink supply needle, comprising: a plurality of external surfaces; an ink supply port formed in one of said external surfaces that receives the ink supply needle; a semiconductor memory located on or in the cartridge; and a plurality of electrodes for connecting to an external control means, the electrodes being positioned on another of said external surfaces and generally adjacent to said external surface having the ink supply port, the electrodes being provided in an upper row having a middle electrode arranged between a first end electrode and a second end electrode and a lower row having at opposite ends a third end electrode and a fourth end electrode, the end electrodes being arranged such that the first and the second end electrodes terminate closer, in the widthwise direction of the rows, to said middle electrode than do the third and the fourth end electrodes.