CARDÜ

noun (Science and Technology) A printed circuit board (see PCBÜ) similar in appearance to a credit card and having all the circuitry required to provide a particular function in a computer system. Etymology: So named because of its resemblance to a credit card; just as a small piece of cardboard is a card, so too a small circuit board is punningly called a card. History and Usage: Slot-in cards providing extra facilities for a computer system (at first known almost exclusively as expansion cards) became a popular feature of the PCs of the eighties. The word card is often preceded by another word explaining the function (as in graphics card or EGA card, a card upgrading a computer to display enhanced graphics); this sometimes results in rather cryptic names such as hard card, a card upgrading the memory of a computer to the equivalent of hard-disc storage capacity. Because it provides the user with any of a number of new options without the need to buy a new computer, this kind of card is sometimes known as an option card. VideoFax comes as a pair of circuit boards, or 'cards', which plug into the back of a personal computer. New Scientist 21 Jan. 1989, p. 39 No matter how reliable, how well engineered or how many options your intelligent multiport card claims to offer,...it will severely limit the numbers of users your system will support. UnixWorld Sept. 1989, p. 36