Patent ID: 8204070

Claim:
A backplane device comprising: a main body to physically span in a first direction a plurality of stackable switch devices and one or more crossbar switch devices, wherein all of the plurality of stackable switch devices and the one or more crossbar switch devices are stacked with each other in the first direction; a plurality of stackable switch connectors coupled to the main body, each stackable switch connector to couple to a respective one of the plurality of stackable switch devices; one or more crossbar switch connectors coupled to the main body, each crossbar switch connector to couple to a respective one of the one or more crossbar switch devices; and a plurality of signal lines including a different respective set of signal lines for each of the stackable switch connectors, the plurality of signal lines having a configuration wherein for each of the stackable switch connectors, the respective set of signal lines for the stackable switch connector includes a different respective subset of one or more signal lines for each of the one or more crossbar switch connectors, and wherein for each of the subsets of one or more signal lines in the respective set of signal lines, each signal line of the subset of one or more signal lines is to couple the respective stackable switch connector for the set of signal lines with the respective crossbar switch connector for the subset of one or more signal lines.