The present invention provides an apparatus including a stacked plurality of devices and a related method. The apparatus includes a stacked plurality of devices including a master device and at least one secondary device; a plurality of segments, each segment being associated with one of the stacked plurality of devices; and a plurality of N vertical connection paths traversing the stacked plurality of devices. The apparatus further includes a plurality of M vertical signal paths configured from the plurality of N vertical connections paths, wherein M is less than N, and at least one of the plurality of M vertical signal paths is a merged vertical signal path adaptively configured by the master device using at least one segment from each one of at least two of the plurality of N vertical connection paths.