Patent ID: 6871244

Claim:
An apparatus to facilitate operation of a small form factor device that is removably attached at a connector, comprising: a selection system operatively coupled to route data between a bus and the connector; the selection system operating in a first mode to convert between a protocol supplied at the connector and a protocol of the bus if the device attached at the connector employs a different protocol from the protocol of the bus; the selection system operating in a second mode to pass the protocol between the bus and the connector without protocol conversion if the device attached at the connector employs a protocol supported by the bus; the selection system further comprising a first interface that implements the first mode, a second interface that implements the second mode, and a selector that connect the connector with the bus through a selected one of the first and second interfaces based on the type information; and the connector comprising a detector operative to detect the device attached at the connector and provide type information to the selection system identifying a type of the device, the selection system selecting one of the operating modes based on the type information.