Patent ID: 8407367

Claim:
A system, comprising: a first host controller using a first protocol; a second host controller using a second protocol, wherein the first and second protocols are different; a unified connector port capable of having a unified connector form factor plug plugged into it, the unified connector port capable of providing a communicative coupling to allow communication using the first protocol between the first host controller and a first unified connector port-compatible peripheral device plugged into the port at a first time and capable of providing a communicative coupling to allow communication using the second protocol between the second host controller and a second unified connector port-compatible peripheral device plugged into the port at a second time; and a router, coupled to the first host controller, the second host controller, and the unified connector port, the router to: encapsulate a physical layer packet received from the first host controller into a first unified connector protocol frame and transmit the first frame to the unified connector port; encapsulate a physical layer packet received from the second host controller into a second unified connector protocol frame and transmit the second frame to the unified connector port; and encapsulate one or more physical layer packets received from one or more additional host controllers apart from the first and second host controllers, wherein the one or more additional host controllers have one or more protocols that are different from the first and second protocols, into one or more additional unified connector protocol frames and transmit the one or more additional frames to the unified connector port; and a memory to store a binding table which is populated at system boot, the binding table containing associations between peripheral devices and host controllers.