backplane

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backplane A hardware device that may be considered as the physical “plane” by means of which a computer or similar device communicates with its various peripherals. Normally a backplane consists of a series of multiway sockets that are wired in parallel and are connected to the internal wiring, or buses, of the computer. Peripherals may then be attached to the computer simply by inserting compatible interface cards into any one of these sockets.

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