[ 0018 ] fig1 illustrates an embodiment 100 of the present invention showing a transparent switch connected to bus protocol devices . transparent switch 102 is connected to devices 104 , 106 , 108 , and 110 . device 104 is connected to transparent switch 102 on lines scl 0 112 and sda 0 114 . device 106 is connected to transparent switch 102 on lines scl 1116 and sda 1 118 . device 108 is connected to transparent switch 102 on lines scl 2 120 and sda 2 122 . device 110 is connected to transparent switch 102 on lines scl 3 124 and sda 3 126 . each device 104 , 106 , 108 , and 110 is capable of communicating on a multipoint bus topology using a bus protocol . a bus topology allows many devices to share a set of common communication lines . a transmitting device , called a master , may arbitrate to take control of the bus , send an address to one or more receiving devices , called slaves , and thereby establish a communications path between the master and the slave ( s ). once the communications path is established , data may be communicated . when the communications have completed , an ending sequence allows all of the devices , both master and slave ( s ) to release connections with the bus and resume a wait state so that another communication may occur . each of the devices connected to the bus , whether master or slave , has the ability to monitor and change the state of the communication lines . typically , a device that is acting as a master is capable of initializing communications . in some embodiments , several masters may be present on a bus . some masters may be capable of operating as slaves , but not all slaves are capable of operating as masters . a bus - type architecture allows only one communication to occur at a time . thus , if many devices are connected to a bus , several devices may request to transmit on the bus simultaneously . when such a situation occurs , an arbitration sequence is typically used to negotiate between the various masters that are attempting to transmit . in the arbitration sequence , each master may simultaneously assert itself on the bus with other masters . using a predetermined logic , one of the masters would be selected and the other masters would return to the wait state . the selected master would then control the bus until the end sequence is executed . every device connected to the bus may be capable of changing the state of one or more communications lines . if one device were to become faulty , it may cause one or more of the communications lines to become stuck in a high or low state and thereby prevent all communications on the bus to cease . when such a fault occurs in a bus - type architecture , the inability to communicate may cause the entire system of connected devices to fail . further , it may be difficult if not impossible to determine which device has failed and for the entire system to continue functioning in a reduced functioning mode . the transparent switch 102 connects to each device 104 , 106 , 108 , and 110 directly on separate communications lines . rather than having multiple devices connected to each other , the devices are separately and distinctly connected to the transparent switch 102 . the transparent switch 102 is capable of communicating with each device separately and connecting the communications lines between the devices so that two or more devices may communicate to each other . the transparent switch 102 may be further capable of allowing two or more simultaneous communications to occur in parallel between two or more sets of communicating devices . in this manner , a network of devices may communicate much more efficiently and enable a much more data to be communicated over the network than with a bus - type architecture . each data line set 112 and 114 , 116 and 118 , 120 and 122 , and 124 and 126 may be separately isolated from each other set . in this manner , a fault or failure of one device may not prevent any other communication from occurring . further , the transparent switch 102 may isolate the various devices such that noise or other spurious signals on one data line is not transmitted to all of the devices on the bus . in the figures , examples and throughout this specification , the communications lines are shown as scl and sda lines , which is a typical terminology for the inter - integrated circuit (“ i2c ”) protocol or the smbus protocol . those skilled in the arts will appreciate that other bus - type protocols , such as rs - 485 and the like , may also be used with the transparent switch 102 while keeping within the spirit and intent of the present invention . references to a specific protocol are to illustrate various principles of the present invention and are not intended to be limiting in any manner . [ 0026 ] fig2 illustrates an embodiment 200 of the present invention showing an architecture of a transparent switch . the transparent switch 202 has four ports 204 , 206 , 208 , and 210 . each switch has a corresponding port management unit 212 , 214 , 216 , and 218 . the port management units are connected to a control bus 220 . a global control unit 224 is connected to the control bus 220 and switches 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 . the port management units 212 , 214 , 216 , and 218 are capable of communicating to the devices connected to the transparent switch 202 using the specified protocol . a port management unit may be a state machine or other logic device that is capable of performing the necessary monitoring , handshaking , and toggling of the communications lines . the global control unit 224 is connected to the various switches as well as the port management units and may be adapted to connect the communications lines of one port to the communications lines of two or more ports . in this manner , the transparent switch 202 may be capable of enabling communications to occur between two or more ports while the port management units may also monitor the ongoing status of the lines . when a master device connected to one of the ports begins the arbitration sequence to request permission to communicate on the bus , the corresponding port management unit may execute the reciprocal sequence to allow the master device to establish communications and transmit the address or addresses of the intended slave device or devices . at this point , the communications between the port management unit and the master are suspended while the global control unit 224 causes the port management unit of each of the intended slave devices to establish communications with the slave devices using the arbitration and addressing sequences of the bus protocol . when all of the communications links are properly established between the port management units and the slaves , the global control unit 224 may set the state of the appropriate switches such that communications may occur directly between the master and slave ( s ). when the master has completed the transmission , the master may execute an ending sequence . the ending sequence may be detected by the port management units and the global control unit may open the appropriate switches to disconnect the communication lines between the various devices . each master and slave may communicate to the transparent switch 202 as if that master or slave were connected to a bus that was connected all of the devices . devices that incorporate a standard bus protocol may be used with the transparent switch 202 to achieve all of the benefits of the transparent switch 202 while using an existing protocol . the transparent switch 202 may be capable of supporting simultaneous communications on the network . for example , a first communication may be established between a master on port 204 and a slave on port 210 . while the first communication is occurring , a second master on port 208 may establish communications with a slave on port 206 . in this manner , the network is able to accommodate multiple transmissions simultaneously where in a bus - type topology would only be able to support one transmission . [ 0032 ] fig3 illustrates an embodiment 300 of the present invention showing the various states of a port management unit of a transparent switch . the embodiment 300 is representative of an implementation of the present invention as applied to an i2c bus . the process begins with an idle state 302 . when a master attached to the port issues a start command 304 , a select state 306 is entered . in the select state 306 , the port receives an address of the intended slave device or ‘ target .’ if the target is not idle 308 , the switch enters a wait state 310 until the target becomes idle 312 and the start slave state 314 is entered . if the target is idle 316 , the start slave state 314 may be entered directly . in the start slave state 314 , the transparent switch may send a start and address command 317 to the slave and enter the master state 318 where communications may occur between the master and slave . if a stop command is observed 320 by the transparent switch , the connections between the devices is severed and the transparent switch enters the idle state 302 . if a repeated start command is observed 322 , the transparent switch enters the select state 306 . the embodiment 300 illustrates how communications may be built up and torn down between several devices . if a master requests to communicate with a particular slave that is currently busy communicating with another device , the wait for target state 310 holds the master in a temporary hold state while the transparent switch monitors the slave until the slave becomes idle again . when the slave is idle , communications are established between the requesting master and the slave . [ 0034 ] fig4 illustrates an embodiment 400 of the present invention showing a method for configuring a transparent switch . the process starts in block 402 . on initialization , all of the ports may be configured as masters in block 404 . in a first embodiment 407 , the configuration information may be retrieved by the transparent switch in block 406 . in a second embodiment 411 , for each port in block 408 , the device attached to the port may be interrogated for configuration information in block 410 . the configuration information may be stored in block 412 . the port management units and global control unit of the transparent switch may be configured using the configuration information in block 414 and normal operation may begin in block 416 . the configuration information may include which devices attached to the transparent switch are masters , slaves , or may operate as both . the transparent switch may be capable of operating with variations of protocol requirements such as being capable of communicating with one device having a certain transmission speed and handshaking requirements while another device connected to the transparent switch may have a separate and different transmission speeds and handshaking requirements . the port management unit attached to each device may be specifically configured to operate with the device using the configuration information . in some embodiments , the addresses of each device on the network may not correspond with the connections to the ports on the transparent switch . in such an embodiment , the transparent switch may define an internal map , lookup table , or other memory device so that the addressing scheme used by the devices attached to the switch may be mapped to the appropriate port of the transparent switch . the embodiment 400 illustrates how a transparent switch may retrieve information concerning the various devices attached to the transparent switch and use the configuration information to configure the transparent switch for normal operations . in the first embodiment 407 , configuration information may be stored in a memory location or may be provided by communicating to a master device that is specifically adapted to transmit the configuration information . in the second embodiment 411 , each port may be interrogated to determine any information about the device attached thereto . for example , the device may be capable of returning its address , device type , and other parameters by a simple query . in another example , the port may be interrogated with different communication speeds and protocols to determine the highest operating speed and the appropriate protocol of the device . the information available by using the embodiment 411 may be limited by the devices attached to the ports . the configuration information may be stored in block 412 and used to configure the port management units and global control unit in block 414 . the various configuration settings such as communication speeds and protocols may be used by the port management units for adapting the performance and communications between each individual device . any address mapping or device type information may be used by the global control unit for properly matching a master unit with the appropriate slave . the configuration information used by the transparent switch may allow the switch to adapt itself to the optimum configuration for the devices attached thereto . for example , if the transparent switch determined that the maximum speed of a device is very high , the switch may communicate with that particular device at its highest speed . further , as devices become more advanced and have improved capabilities with regard to the communications protocols , the transparent switch may be adapted to take advantage of those communications protocols while still being able to communicate with older devices that do not have the same capabilities . in some embodiments , a transparent switch may not have any configuration parameters and may be hardwired to perform with a specific protocol and wherein the addressing scheme corresponds with the various ports . in such embodiments , programmable configuration of the transparent switch would be unnecessary . the foregoing description of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed , and other modifications and variations may be possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . it is intended that the appended claims be construed to include other alternative embodiments of the invention except insofar as limited by the prior art .