An
edge connector is the portion of a
printed circuit board (PCB) consisting of
traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching
socket. The edge connector is a money-saving device because it only requires a single discrete
female connector (the male connector is formed out of the edge of the PCB), and they also tend to be fairly robust and durable. They are commonly used in computers for
expansion slots for peripheral cards, such as
PCI,
PCI Express, and
AGP cards.