A housing-attachable (HA) optical connector is removably attached to a housing that is initially designed for an electrical interface with a base electrical connector on a system board. An optical fiber terminates at one end to a chip optical connector and terminates at another end to the HA optical connector. The HA optical connector is positioned with respect to the housing such that when a portion of the printed circuit board of a removable module extending outside the housing comes into contact with a base electrical connector on a system board, the HA optical connector blind mates with a base-attachable (BA) optical connector on the system board. In this manner, electrical connectivity and optical connectivity are provided between the removable module and the system board.