The compact architectures of PCs, servers and industrial computers make the space on motherboards of these devices extremely valuable as never before. In many applications, the only way to add peripherals or functionality, such as 3D graphics or I/Os, is to go above board. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is an industry supported passive backplane connection which can be used as an expansion card interface (or link) for add-in boards (or riser cards). The riser card can be attached directly to the link or by means of a cable. The added card can itself have connectors for the attachment of additional PCIe cards.