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Circuit board for connecting to a computer system to add functionality
Example of a PCI digital I/O expansion card using a large square chip from PLX Technology to handle the PCI bus interfacePCI expansion slotAltair 8800b from March 1976 with an 18-slot S-100 backplane which housed both the Intel 8080 mainboard and many expansion boardsRack of IBM Standard Modular System expansion cards in an IBM 1401 computer using a 16-pin gold plated edge connector first introduced in 1959Configuration DIP switches in a 16-pin through-hole package as often found in ISA expansion cards from the 1980sThunderbolt 3 connector introduced by Intel in December 2015 multiplexes up to 4-lanes of PCIe 3.0 and 8-lanes of DisplayPort 1.2 and can support an external docking station housing one or more expansion cards with enough bandwidth to drive a mid-range GPU.
In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus slot) on a computer's motherboard (see also backplane) to add functionality to a computer system. Sometimes the design of the computer's case and motherboard involves placing most (or all) of these slots onto a separate, removable card. Typically such cards are referred to as a riser card in part because they project upward from the board and allow expansion cards to be placed above and parallel to the motherboard.
Expansion cards allow the capabilities and interfaces of a computer system to be extended or supplemented in a way appropriate to the tasks it will perform. For example, a high-speed multi-channel data acquisition system would be of no use in a personal computer used for bookkeeping, but might be a key part of a system used for industrial process control. Expansion cards can often be installed or removed in the field, allowing a degree of user customization for particular purposes. Some expansion cards take the form of "daughterboards" that plug into connectors on a supporting system board.
In personal computing, notable expansion buses and expansion card standards include the S-100 bus from 1974 associated with the CP/M operating system, the 50-pin expansion slots of the original Apple II computer from 1977 (unique to Apple), IBM's Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) introduced with the IBM PC in 1981, Acorn's tube expansion bus on the BBC Micro also from 1981, IBM's patented and proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) from 1987 that never won favour in the clone market, the vastly improved Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) that displaced ISA in 1992, and PCI Express from 2003 which abstracts the interconnect into high-speed communication "lanes" and relegates all other functions into software protocol.
In computing, an expansioncard (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can...
such as Toshiba and Compaq for PC Card products. It soon became clear that the PCMCIA card standard needed expansion to support "smart" I/O cards to address...
most commonly either PCI bus expansioncard or the newer PCI Express (PCIe) bus for many modern cards, but PCMCIA, ExpressCard, or USB devices also exist...
video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansioncard that generates a feed of graphics output to a display device such as...
Parts tray Magnetic charger expansioncard Scroll wheels expansioncard UART expansioncard Solokeys Solo V2 expansioncard Box, a hardware for cloud storage...
A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansioncard that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the...
expansion pack for both Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Collectible card games, or CCGs for short, are typically released as expansion...
on certain Dell servers. The platform may be provided on a separate expansioncard, or integrated into the main board; when integrated, the platform is...
converse of a reduct Expansioncard, in computing, a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot Expansion chamber, on a two-stroke...
fixed manufacturer's choice. For boards which take expansion slots, the length of the expansioncard aligns with the depth of the system board. The case...
factor expansioncard utilizing serial PCI Express and USB interfaces since 2005, primarily used in laptops and handheld devices Miniature Card, a flash...
digital display, second generation) or the more feature-rich MEC (media expansioncard). MEC is sometimes designated as ADD2+ in Intel documents. Intel often...
variety of other standards — most notably the laptop expansioncard interface called ExpressCard. It is also used in the storage interfaces of SATA Express...
hardware components receive. An expansioncard in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard...
late 1990s. Originally located on a dedicated Game Control Adapter expansioncard, the game port was later integrated with PC sound cards, and still later...
on the motherboard. (Presently a historical expansioncard standard, designed for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard (and considered high-speed...
routines. The consoles support external storage through a proprietary SSD expansioncard inserted into the back of the console, which was manufactured exclusively...
(satellite), a 1964 NASA communications satellite Echo II (expansioncard), a speech synthesizer card for the Apple II EchoStar II, a 1990s communications satellite...
and parent processes before scheduling each one. The MMU on the RAM expansioncard was developed to support Colin's Minix port, although it's unclear if...
trademark for a hard disk drive, disk controller, and host adapter on an expansioncard for a personal computer. Typically a hard disk drive (HDD) installs...
that connects directly to the CPU, or it may be located on an external expansioncard in the computer's chassis. Watchdog timers are commonly found in embedded...
single execute pipeline in a CPU Expansion slot, portion of a computer mother board that can receive an expansioncard Kensington Security Slot, a small...
limited expansion abilities. Prior to the invention of the microprocessor, the CPU of a digital computer consisted of multiple circuit boards in a card-cage...
computer systems) is a piece of firmware that resides in ROM on an expansioncard (or stored along with the main system BIOS), which gets executed to...
Memory-/Modem board expansion offers a socket for another expansioncard which has 4MB (8×512 KB 80 ns) of memory and another expansion socket installed...
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