Patent ID: 7502878

Claim:
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) apparatus, comprising: multiple USB receptacles each connected to a USB Transceiver Macrocell Interface (UTMI) transceiver, the USB receptacles configured to receive serialized analog USB signals originating from first connected devices that are coupled to the USB receptacles through analog transmission USB connections extending between the UTMI transceivers and the first connected devices, the multiple USB receptacles configured to pass the received serialized analog USB signals to the UTMI transceivers for initial signal processing; first switching logic configured to receive, from the UTMI transceivers, de-serialized digital USB signals output according to the initial signal processing by the UTMI transceivers and representing the serialized analog USB signals originating from the first connected devices; wherein the first switching logic is configured to pass only selected ones of the initially processed digital USB signals for subsequent processing by USB logic internal to the USB apparatus, the first switching logic separated from the analog transmission USB connections by being located behind the UTMI transceivers, a location of the first switching logic behind the UTMI transceivers causing the first switching logic to selectively pass the initially processed digital USB signals to the internal USB logic without creating discontinuities in the analog transmission USB connections; wherein the first switching logic is located behind the UTMI transceivers such that the first switching logic performs USB host switching without causing signal reflections on the analog transmission USB connections; and a controller operable to configure the first switching logic according to communications that are received over at least one of the USB receptacles and independently of any non-USB interfaces on the USB apparatus, the controller configured to control which ones of the initially processed digital USB signals are passed to the USB logic for subsequent processing thereby controlling which ones of second connected devices are communicatively coupled to the first connected devices through the USB apparatus; wherein the USB apparatus is configured to control which one of a plurality of general purpose computers is communicatively coupled to a high speed USB peripheral according to the communications that are received over at least one of the USB receptacles.