US Patent 7099966 Point-to-point electrical loading for a multi-drop bus

A switching technique allows multiple interconnect bus devices to be connected to a single bus segment, even if the interconnect bus protocol only allows a one of the interconnect devices to be connected at any time. Each of the interconnect devices is connected to the interconnect bus segment with a switch, such that the interconnect device is electrically isolated from the interconnect bus segment when the switch is open. An interconnect sourcing agent connected to the interconnect bus segment controls the switches, closing the switch for one of the interconnect devices when a transaction is destined for that interconnect device, opening all of the other switches so that only one device is connected to the bus at any time.