Patent ID: 7721028

Claim:
A KVM (keyboard video mouse) switch comprising: one or more console ports each for connecting to a user console, each console port including one or more input device ports for transmitting input device signals and one or more audio device ports for transmitting analog audio signals; a plurality of computer ports each for connecting to a computer, each computer port including a single USB (universal serial bus) port for transmitting input device signals and digital audio signals; a plurality of USB hubs each associated with one of the computer ports, each USB hub having an upstream port and a plurality of downstream ports, the upstream port being connected to the USB port of the associated computer port; a plurality of audio codecs each associated with one of the USB hubs, each audio codec having a digital end and one or more analog ends, the digital end being connected to one of the downstream ports of the associated USB hub; an audio mixer having a plurality of input ports and an output port for mixing audio signals present at the input ports and providing the mixed signals to the output port, each input port being connected to one of the analog ends of one of the audio codecs, the output port being connected to one of the audio device ports of each console port of the KVM switch; and a switching device having one or more console-side ports and a plurality of computer-side ports, each computer-side port being connected to one of the downstream ports of one of the USB hubs, each console-side port being connected to one of the input device ports of one of the console ports of the KVM switch, the switching device selectively connecting each console-side port with one of the computer-side ports.