Motherboard for supporting multiple graphics cards
US7782325B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 22, 2003 |
| Grant date | Aug 24, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 22, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG09G2352/00
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The invention provides a motherboard that uses a high-speed, scalable system bus such as PCI Express® to support two or more high bandwidth graphics slots. The lanes from the motherboard chipset may be directly routed to two or more graphics slots. For instance, the chipset may route (1) thirty-two lanes into two ×16 graphics slots; (2) twenty-four lanes into one ×16 graphics slot and one ×8 graphics slot (the ×8 slot using the same physical connector as a ×16 graphics slot but with only eight active lanes); or (3) sixteen lanes into two ×8 graphics slots (again, physically similar to a ×16 graphics slot but with only eight active lanes). Alternatively, a switch can convert sixteen lanes coming from the chipset root complex into two ×16 links that connect to two ×16 graphics slots. The system according to the invention is agnostic to a specific chipset.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.