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What is the backplane connector?

Updated: 8/21/2019
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Early computers were entirely point to point wired either with soldered or wire wrapped connections. They usually used circuit modules that plugged into connectors mounted on the mainframe rack to make repair faster (when a problem was located the defective module could be quickly unplugged and a good module plugged in it's place to get the computer running again while the defective module was being repaired on the test bench).

In the 1950s printed circuit boards replaced the point to point wired circuit modules, but the connectors they plugged into were still point to point wired together with soldered or wire wrapped connections.

Starting with some of the minicomputers in the 1960s large multilayer printed circuit boards with the connectors for the individual circuit boards mounted on this large board. These large multilayer printed circuit boards were called "backplanes" and the connectors mounted on them "backplane connectors". These minicomputers might have several backplanes usually mounted in different sections of the rack containing the minicomputer (the rack was often larger than the size that was practical to make the backplane circuit boards).

The first microcomputers in the 1970s copied minicomputers and used a single backplane (their chassis were small enough that usually one backplane was all that was needed). Beginning with the IBM PC in the 1980s "motherboards" replaced "backplanes", the motherboard contains much of the circuitry of the computer itself and connectors for the "daughterboards" while a backplane only contained connectors.

No modern computers use backplanes or backplane connectors today, they are obsolete.

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Q: What is the backplane connector?
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Related questions

Do backplane systems use a true motherboard?

False. Backplane systems do not use a true motherboard.


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A backplane is similar in concept to a motherboard, except it contains no significant electronics (i.e. all of the electronics components are on boards that plug into connectors on the backplane), a motherboard usually contains significant amounts of electronics components and may or may not have several connectors connected similar to those on a backplane for optional boards that could add functionality to the machine desired by the user. Some backplanes are not wired with all the connectors in parallel, but instead are wired "randomly" because every board plugged into the backplane has a specific purpose in the machine. These backplanes may not use any form of computer bus (e.g. address bus, data bus, control bus) or such buses may only be used to interconnect different backplanes within the machine or peripherals connected to the machine. Backplanes have been constructed using hand soldering of the connector pins, wire wrapping of the connector pins (either by hand or automated machine), printed circuit board (either flexible or rigid), etc.


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