Expansion Slot

What Does Expansion Slot Mean?

An expansion slot is a socket on the motherboard that is used to insert an expansion card (or circuit board), which provides additional features to a computer such as video, sound, advanced graphics, Ethernet or memory.

The expansion card has an edge connector that fits precisely into the expansion slot as well as a row of contacts that is designed to establish an electrical connection between the motherboard and the electronics on the card, which are mostly integrated circuits. Depending on the form factor of the case and motherboard, a computer system generally can have anywhere from one to seven expansion slots. With a backplane system, up to 19 expansion cards can be installed.

Techopedia Explains Expansion Slot

Expansion cards can provide various functions including:

• Sound
• Modems
• Network
• Interface adapters
• TV and radio tuning
• Video processing
• Host adapting such as redundant array of independent disks or small computer system interface
• Solid-state drive
• Power-on self-test
• Advanced multirate codec
• Basic input/output system (BIOS)
• Expansion read-only memory (ROM)
• Security devices
• RAM memory

Older expansion cards also included memory expansion cards, clock/calendar cards, hard disk cards, compatibility cards for hardware emulation, and disk controller cards. The Altair 8800 was the first slot-type expansion card bus added to a microcomputer. It was developed in 1974-1975 by IBM Corp.

The expansion slot opening is generally located on the back of a PC and provides an electrical connection to the motherboard for an expansion card. Screws are then used to attach the card to the slot for added security.