backplane

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

backplane

   <hardware, electronics> A {printed circuit board} with slots
   into which other cards are plugged.

   A backplane,is typically just a connector and does not usually
   have many active components on it.  This contrasts with a
   {motherboard}.

   Designing a backplane
   (http://iec.org/online/tutorials/design_backplane/index.html).

   (2002-09-08)