Methods and apparatus for configuring a packet switching (PS) backplane to support various configurations

A method and system is adapted to provide for a low-cost and highly flexible system that can control and change configurations on one or more segments of a Compact Peripheral Component Interconnect Packet Switching Backplane (CPCI/PSB or CPCI and CPSB) during the backplane's lifetime that overcomes the limitations of the prior art. In one embodiment of the present invention, the segments are configurable to either a CPCI and CPSB configuration or a CPSB only configuration by controlling a CPCI indication signal, such as a PCI_PRESENT# signal. The PCI_PRESENT# signal of the present invention is to be controlled by a Chassis Management Controller (CMC) and the CMC software is used to configure each of the segments by driving zero or one on the segments (instead of hardwiring these segments to ground or open during the manufacturing of the backplane). This embodiment allows for the flexibility to configure each of the segments to either a CPCI and CPSB configuration or a CPSB only configuration and provides the flexibility to support CPCI and CPSB front cards (or interface boards) in a host-less (e.g., CPSB only) environment and/or host (e.g., CPCI and CPSB) environment.