Patent ID: 7324231

Claim:
A printer, comprising: a processor; a print engine operably coupled to and controlled by the processor for receiving print operations from the processor; more than three expansion ports; a first level expansion bus operably coupled to the processor, the first level expansion bus comprising an Enhanced Input/Output (EIO) bus; an expansion bus controller operably coupled to the processor and generating EIO bus cycles on the first level expansion bus; a second level expansion bus; and a first nontransparent expansion bus bridge operably coupled to the first level expansion bus and the second level expansion bus, the first nontransparent expansion bus bridge configured to emulate a transparent bridge and comprising: a first plurality of command registers; and a set of executable instructions for execution by the processor, wherein the set of executable instructions controls the first plurality of command registers to generate a secondary expansion bus configuration cycle emulating a transparent expansion bus configuration cycle on the second level expansion bus prior to completing a search for peripheral devices on the first level expansion bus.