Patent ID: 7882274

Claim:
A method of connecting a terminal to a computer, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a computer having a plurality of I/O ports, with the I/O ports having a hierarchical organization having at least a root level with a single logical I/O port, and a terminal connection level hierarchically below the root level having a plurality of physical I/O ports; (b) logically grouping, by the computer, the terminal connection level I/O ports into a plurality of groupings, with each grouping including at least three terminal connection level I/O ports; (c) subsequent to step (b), connecting an I/O device into a first terminal level I/O port that is in a first grouping of the plurality of groupings; (d) subsequent to step (c), indicating by user input that the I/O device connected at the first terminal level I/O port corresponds to a first terminal; (e) subsequent to step (b), connecting a second I/O device into a second terminal level I/O port that is in a first grouping of the plurality of groupings; (f) subsequent to step (e), indicating by user input that the I/O device connected at the second terminal level I/O port corresponds to the first terminal; (g) subsequent to step (b), connecting a third I/O device into a third terminal level I/O port that is in a first grouping of the plurality of groupings; and (h) subsequent to step (f), automatically assigning, by the computer, the third device as belonging to the first terminal.