# Computer module

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Circuit board within a computer

This article is about computer hardware modules. For computer software and hardware modules, see [Module (disambiguation)](/source/Module_(disambiguation)).

Not to be confused with [Computer-on-module](/source/Computer-on-module).

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[DEC](/source/Digital_Equipment_Corporation)'s original products were individual modules, like these System Building Blocks 1103 hex-inverter cards (both sides).

[CDC](/source/Control_Data_Corporation) used much smaller modules in their early computers.

A **computer module** is a selection of independent electronic circuits packaged onto a [circuit board](/source/Circuit_board) to provide a basic function within a [computer](/source/Computer).[1] An example might be an [inverter](/source/Inverter_(logic_gate)) or [flip-flop](/source/Flip-flop_(electronics)), which would require two or more [transistors](/source/Transistor) and a small number of additional supporting devices. Modules would be inserted into a chassis and then wired together to produce a larger logic unit, like an adder.

## History

Modules were the basic building block of most early computer designs, until they started being replaced by [integrated circuits](/source/Integrated_circuit) in the 1960s, which were essentially an entire module packaged onto a single [computer chip](/source/Computer_chip). Modules with discrete components continued to be used in specialist roles into the 1970s, notably high-speed [modular designs](/source/Modular_design) like the [CDC 8600](/source/CDC_8600), but advances in chip design led to the disappearance of the discrete-component module in the 1970s.

## See also

- [Modularity](/source/Modularity)

## References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Computer modules](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Computer_modules).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Fuller, S.; Siewiorek, D.; Swan, R. (1975). ["Computer modules - an architecture for a modular multi-microprocessor"](http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=800181.810301). *Proceedings of the 1975 annual conference on - ACM 75*. Not Known: ACM Press. pp. 129–133. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1145/800181.810301](https://doi.org/10.1145%2F800181.810301). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781450374811](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781450374811). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [17439181](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17439181).

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