Patent ID: 7664888

Claim:
A transceiver, comprising: a substrate; a plurality of ports including serial ports and parallel ports, said plurality of ports being configured and arranged such that any one of said serial and parallel ports can be connected to another serial or parallel port, each port including programmable pads, said plurality of ports being arranged on said substrate in a rotational symmetric layout, wherein a first programmable pad is part of a first parallel port and a second programmable pad is part of a first serial port, wherein at least one of a group consisting of said first programmable pad and said second programmable pad is configurable to operate according to a plurality of electrical specifications and a plurality of data protocols; a bus coupled to said plurality of ports on said substrate; and a pad control system constructed and arranged to configure said at least one of said first programmable pad and said second programmable pad to operate in accordance with a specified data protocol from among said plurality of data protocols and a specified electrical specification from among said plurality of electrical specifications.