Method of function activation on a bridge system

A method for bridging a device utilizing a first communications protocol with a host system, the method comprising:

• coupling the device utilizing the first communications protocol to a bridge through a device bus interface;
• coupling the bridge to a host system utilizing a plurality of communications protocols through a plurality of host bus interfaces;
• providing a plurality of bridge chips within the bridge, each bridge chip coupled to the device bus interface and to a respective host bus interface of the plurality of host bus interfaces;
• communicating between the first communications protocol of the device bus interface and a communications protocol of the respective host bus interface being coupled to the bridge chip utilizing each bridge chip;
• providing a plurality of activation circuits, each activation circuit corresponding to a bridge chip;
• disabling the bridge chips until a predetermined protocol initialization signal sent by the host system is received by a particular activation circuit;
• and
• when all the bridge chips are disabled, enabling a bridge chip corresponding to the particular activation circuit to control the device bus interface upon reception by the particular activation circuit of the predetermined protocol initialization signal.