Patent ID: 7027765

Claim:
An apparatus for identifying paper cassettes of an image forming apparatus which supports to output various types of paper, the apparatus comprising: first through N-th paper cassettes, wherein each of N-1, where N is a positive integer greater than 1, output ports is connected to N-1 input ports, which have one of N input ports and one of N output ports; a paper cassette identification unit which generates a synchronizing signal in response to an identification symbol which is transmitted from one of the first through N-th paper cassettes which indicates one of the first through N-th paper cassettes, and transmits the generated synchronizing signal to the paper cassettes in which an undefined symbol that indicates that an identification signal has not been assigned, among the first through N-th paper cassettes is given; and a serial bus which connects the first through N-th paper cassettes to the paper cassette identification unit.