Abstract: A chassis comprises a backplane comprising a switch fabric compatible with peripheral component interconnect express (PCI-E) and configured to support communication between a plurality of module slots, a module slot compatible with PCI-E and disposed on the backplane, a cavity disposed adjacent to the module slot and having a width greater than or equal to a width of the module slot and a height greater than or equal to a height of the module slot, and a device connection interface located in the cavity and configured to support connection of at least one PCI-E compatible module to the switch fabric via the module slot.