Patent ID: 7713068

Claim:
A scalable, composite backplane for a server system, the backplane comprising: a first blade aggregation module configured to communicatively connect one or more computing devices connected to the first blade aggregation module; one or more transition cards, wherein one or more of the transition cards comprise: two or more connectors comprising: a first card connector that connects to the first blade aggregation module; one or more additional card connectors that connect to one or more computing devices; and at least one communication connection between at least two of the connectors; wherein at least one of the first blade aggregation module and the one or more transition cards comprise one or more active components; and the first blade aggregation module connected to the first card connector of one or more of the transition cards, the union of a first transition card, the first blade aggregation module, and a second transition card defining an airflow passage permitting substantially unobstructed airflow through a portion of the scalable composite backplane.