Patent ID: 7300313

Claim:
A connector comprising: a housing with a plurality of contact cavities arranged in a matrix having M columns and N rows of contact cavities, each of the contact cavities extending between a contact loading side and a mating side of the housing configured to interface with a mating connector, and each of the contact cavities being defined by cavity walls extending between the contact loading side and the mating side; and contacts received within respective ones of the contact cavities, the contacts being surrounded by the walls such that adjacent ones of the contacts are separated from one another along a length of the contacts by the cavity walls, wherein a first group of the contacts are held within the contact cavities at a first depth with respect to the contact loading side and a second group of the contacts are held within the contact cavities at a different second depth with respect to the contact loading side, wherein the first group of contacts are located in odd numbered columns of the contact cavities and the second group of contacts are located in even numbered columns of the contact cavities.