Mother board with flexible layout for accommodating computer system design options

Abstract

Mother board 10M provides a flexible circuit component layout for computer system 10 within housing 10H. The mother board accommodates system component options such as an add-on card 12C or a disk drive bay 10D. Memory module footprint sites 14A-F within memory region 14 are defined on the mother board. Footprints designated in the layout receive components which provide the option flexibility of mother board 10M. Memory module connectors are to be emplaced within the memory region depending on the space requirements of component options. The M memory connectors may be arranged in any configuration selected from a set of multiple possible configurations permitted by M module connectors of T types emplaced in F footprint sites (where F>M). F minus M footprint sites remain vacant without a module connector emplaced therein. These vacant sites provide empty spaces which may be "shuffled around" to accommodate the various system component options. Once a design option has been determined (such as an expansion circuit card or a relocated drive bay) a workable memory connector configuration is selected. The memory connectors are then emplaced in the memory region on the mother board and memory modules are seated in each of the module connectors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.