Patent ID: 7116015

Claim:
An information handling system comprising: a backplane; a plurality of connectors associated with the backplane, the connectors operable to interface with one or more peripheral attachments; at least one switch associated with the connectors, the switch including an open state and a closed state; a plurality of terminations associated with the switch, the terminations including an active state and an inactive state; at least one sense engine associated with the connectors, the switch, and the terminations, the sense engine operable to detect peripheral attachment to the connectors and based on the peripheral attachment determine the state for the switch and the state for the terminations; wherein the terminations include a plurality of multi-loop terminations and at least one single-loop termination; and wherein the sense engine is operable to set the switch to the open state, the multi-loop terminations to the active state, and the single-loop termination to the inactive state upon detecting the connectors interfacing with more than one peripheral attachment.