US Patent 7114017 Programmable peripheral switch

A peripheral switch (62) is electrically interposed between a peripheral device (10) and a plurality of computing devices respectively coupled to host computer ports (70a)–(70N). The peripheral switch (62) includes host computer port state sensing means (110) for determining a state of each host computer port (70a)–(70N) and providing a communication path to the peripheral device (10) from a host computer port (70a)–(70N) at a state indicative of a server computer being coupled thereto. The peripheral switch (62) further includes local handshaking means (120) for simulating communications from a server computer to peripheral device (10) if none of host computer ports (70a)–(70N) are determined to be coupled to a server computer.