Patent ID: 7893709

Claim:
A termination circuit comprising: an external connection terminal; a terminating resistor circuit that includes a plurality of resistance elements, wherein connections of the plurality of resistance elements to the external connection terminal are capable of being turned on and off; and a control circuit for exercising control so as to temporally stagger on/off timings of respective ones of said plurality of resistance elements, wherein said termination circuit has a plurality of transistors for turning the connections of said plurality of resistance elements to said external terminal on and off, wherein said control circuit controls timings at which respective ones of said plurality of transistors are turned on and off by changing slew rates of respective ones of control signals supplied to said plurality of transistors, wherein said control circuit has driving circuits, each of which includes a plurality of driving transistors, for driving respective ones of said plurality of transistors; and each of said driving circuits varies the slew rate by changing the number of the plurality of driving circuits that are activated.