Isolinear chips are the small crystalline components used to store data and run processes in 24th-century Starfleet computers and equipment.
Isolinear chips slot into panels and computer cores throughout a starship. Each chip holds data or instructions, and engineers can remove, replace or reprogram them to repair systems, install new software or isolate a corrupted subsystem. Pulling a single chip can cut off a malfunctioning or compromised system.
The chips are a common sight in Starfleet engineering scenes, where officers swap them in and out of access panels while making repairs. Later ships such as Voyager supplemented them with bio-neural circuitry.