Patent ID: 7660923

Claim:
A method of configuring an embedded system, comprising: connecting a plurality of add-on cards to a circuit board having a programmable processor, each one of the plurality of add-on cards having card connectors, wherein the programmable processor is configured to communicate with the plurality of add-on cards, and the circuit board having a plurality of board connectors, such that each board connector has at least one unshared line under the control of the programmable processor, and one of the add-on cards has two or more card connectors of like kind that mate to a group of like kind board connectors of the circuit board, such that the board connectors enable connection of particular types of the plurality of add-on cards having one or more card connectors; determining an identifier of each of the plurality of add-on cards where the identifier of each of the plurality of add-on cards is used to generate a configuration image; and configuring the programmable processor to communicate with the plurality of add-on cards by obtaining the configuration image.