The present invention relates to techniques for configuring printed circuit (PC) boards.
One common type of integrated circuit (IC) device packaging technique provides pins around a rectangular package perimeter. The pins may be bent perpendicular to the plane of the chip and soldered into holes in the PC board (referred to as through-hole mount), or may be bent with the ends of the pins parallel to the plane of the chip and soldered to pads on the board surface (referred to as surface-mount). However, IC devices are constantly evolving, and may it may be desirable for a later generation of an IC device to include additional circuitry for new features, diagnostics, or perhaps operation in multiple modes. In many such cases, the new IC device will require more pins than the old IC device.
This creates problems for a board manufacturer who wishes to offer products based on both versions of the IC device. Clearly, the existing board that was designed to accommodate the old version will not accommodate the new version. Equally serious, however, is the problem that a new circuit board, designed for the new version, will not accommodate the old version. Thus the manufacturer is confronted with having to maintain two boards in inventory, which is undesirable.