Patent ID: 7187202

Claim:
A circuit board housing a plurality of circuit devices and logic coupled to communicate by way of circuit traces and lead lines on and off the circuit board, the circuit board comprising: at least one outrigger device for coupling to circuit elements of the circuit board; large scale logic having a number of pins substantially less than a number of pins specified by Rent's Rule for a number of logic elements within the large scale logic, the large scale logic further including a port for exchanging signals with the at least one outrigger device over a digital communication channel; the at least one outrigger device further comprising: a digital communication channel port for exchanging the signals with the large scale logic; a plurality of pins logically exported from the large scale logic coupled to communicate exported signals with at least one external device; outgoing data logic for routing received exported signals from the large scale logic to corresponding exported pins; and ingoing data logic for receiving ingoing signals produced by other external devices that are intended for specified pins of the large scale logic and for producing the signals to the large scale logic by way of the digital communication channel; and wherein the large scale logic is operable to process the ingoing signals to enable logic and circuit elements within the large scale logic to process the ingoing signals transparently with respect to the ingoing signals being received from an exported pin on the outrigger device as if received on a local pin.