Motherboard parts & functions

1. PARTS OF THE MOTHERBOARD AND ITS FUNCTION

2. MOTHERBOARD • Alternatively referred to as the mb, mainboard, mobo, mobd,
backplane board, base board, planar board, system board, or logic board on Apple
computers. • The motherboard is a printed circuit board that is the foundation of a
computer and allows the CPU, RAM, and all other computer hardware components to
function and communicate with each other.
3. 4 pin CPU Fan pin-out 4-pin connectors are usually used by CPU fans with higher
power consumption.
4. 12v 4 pin CPU Power Connector This device senses the CPU voltage requirements
(usually via sense pins on the processor) and calibrates itself to provide the proper
voltage to run the CPU.
5. 24 pin ATX Power Connector Originally the motherboard was powered by one 20-pin
connector. Current version of ATX12V 2.x power supply provides two connectors for the
motherboard: a 4-pin auxiliary connector providing additional power to the CPU, and a
main 24-pin ATX 2 power supply connector, an extension of the original 20-pin version.
6. FRONT PANEL CONNECTORS The front panel connector is where the connectors
of hard disk drive activity lights, case speaker, reset button, power on/off button,
computer power on light, and key lock, are connected to make them function smoothly.
7. TYPES OF SYSTEM PANEL CABLES • HDD LED (IDE LED) – The LED activity light
for the hard disk drive. This is the LED that flashes as information is being written and
read from the hard drive. • POWER LED (PLED) – The LED power light, which indicates
when the computer is on, off, or in standby. • POWER SW (PWRSW) – controls the
power button that allows you to turn on and off the computer. • RESET SW – handles
the reset button to restart the computer
8. BIOS Short for Basic Input/Output System, the BIOS, ROM BIOS, or System BIOS is
a chip located on all motherboards that contain instructions and setup for how your
system should boot and how it operate.
9. CMOS BATTERY To keep the clock chip running even when power is of.
10. INDUCTOR Short for electromagnetic coil, a coil is conductor wire such as copper in
a cylindrical form around an iron core that creates an inductor or electromagnet to store
magnetic energy. Coils are often used to remove power spikes and dips from power.
The core of a coil is usually iron; however, it may also be plastic and even air. A coil can
also refer to a spring.
11. NORTH BRIDGE The Northbridge is a chip inside a computer that connects the
central processing unit (CPU) to other primary components in the system. These
components include RAM (a.k.a. system memory), the Front Side Bus (FSB), PCI
Express cards, and the AGP card.
12. SOUTH BRIDGE A Southbridge chipset handles all of a computer's I/O functions,
such as USB, audio, serial, the system BIOS, the ISA bus, the interrupt controller and
the IDE channels
13. SUPER I/O Controller Super I/O is a class of I/O controller integrated circuits that
began to be used on personal computer motherboards in the late 1980s, originally as
add-in cards, later embedded on the motherboards. A super I/O chip combines
interfaces for a variety of low-bandwidth devices. The functions provided usually
include: • A floppy disk controller • A parallel port (commonly used for printers) • One or
more serial ports • A PS/2 keyboard and mouse interface. • Temperature sensor and fan
speed monitoring
14. SCREW HOLE A hole through which to bolt.
15. INTEGRATED CIRCUIT • An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also
referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small
plate ("chip") of semiconductor material, normally silicon. This can be made much
smaller than a discrete circuit made from independent components. • Integrated circuits
are used in virtually all electronic equipment today and have revolutionized the world of
electronics.
16. JUMPERS In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is a short length of
conductor used to close a break in, or bypass part of, an electrical circuit. Jumpers are
typically used to set up or configure printed circuit boards, such as the motherboards of
computers.
17. FWH IN PLCC Short for Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier, PLCC is a cheaper version
of the Leadless chip carrier socket. Although similar, PLCC and LCC are not compatible
with one another. In the picture to the right, is an example of a FWH chip in a PLCC.
18. CAPASITOR Is used to store energy in an electric field.
19. USB HEADER A USB header is a group of pins, typically on a computer
motherboard or expansion card, to which an internal USB cable can be attached to
provide extra USB ports. Typically, one header is a group of two USB ports.
20. IDE SLOT Integrated Drive Electronics (or PATA) is a drive controller on your
motherboard that supports both Hard drives and CD- ROM and DVD-ROM devices (and
all their different varieties).
21. FLOPPY DISK SLOT a floppy disk slot is what you put the floppy disk in on a CPU
22. MEMORY SLOT A memory slot, memory socket, or RAM slot is what allows
computer memory (RAM) to be inserted into the computer
23. PCI SLOT Provides a medium to expand the capabilities of the PC, by adding like
modems cards, audio cards, Ethernet cards.
24. Ethernet Card Sound Card Modem Card
25. AGP SLOT AGP slot is one of the types of video card available. AGP cards are
automatically detected as in-built video cards when connected to AGP slot of system.
They provide better resolution than onboard/integrated video.
26. AMR SLOT The audio/modem riser, also known as an AMR slot, is a riser
expansion slot found on the motherboards of some Pentium III, Pentium 4, Duron, and
Athlon personal computers. It was designed by Intel to interface with chipsets and
provide analog functionality, such as sound cards and modems, on an expansion card.
27. ISA SLOT Stands for Industry Standard Architecture. It accepts plug-in boards that
controls the sound, video display and other peripherals. Most PCs today use the ISA
and PCI buses and have a combination of ISA and PCI slots. However, the ISA bus is
expected to be eliminated by the mid 2000s.
28. GAME PORT The game port is a device port found on IBM PC compatible systems
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the traditional connector for joystick input
devices until superseded by USB in the 21st century. Originally located on a dedicated
expansion card, the game port was later integrated with PC sound cards.
29. PCI EXPRESS X1 PCIe 1x is the replacement for lower bandwidth devices.
30. CPU CPU also referred to as a central processing unit, is the hardware within a
computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the
basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system
31. CPU SOCKET A CPU socket or CPU slot is a mechanical component(s) that
provides mechanical and electrical connections between a microprocessor and a
printed circuit board (PCB).
32. CPU FAN CPU fan is attached together with a heat sink on the mother board, CPU
fan is used to prevent overheating of the processor on the motherboard.
33. HEAT SINK Heat sink is a passive heat exchanger component that cools a device
by dissipating heat into the surrounding air. It is used to cool central processing units or
graphic processors.
34. BACK PANEL & I/O CONNECTORS PS/2 Mouse PS/2 Keyboard Parallel Port
Serial Port VGA Port USB Port LAN Port Mic-in/ Digital I/O Jack Line-in Jack Line-out
Jack
35. PARALLEL PORT A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers
(personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. It is also known as a printer port or
Centronics port.
36. PS/2 connector is a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards
and mice to a PC compatible computer system.
37. SERIAL PORT A serial port can be connected to numerous devices; pretty much
any device that has another serial port. It is a serial communication physical interface
through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time Examples include:
Modems, serial mice, serial printers, bar code readers, digital scales, data acquisition
equipment, pumps, flow monitors, radios, etc. Serial Port Female Serial Port Male
38. LAN PORT alternatively referred to as an Ethernet port, network connection, and
network port, the LAN port is a port connection that allows a computer to connect to a
network using a wired connection.
39. USB PORT Universal Serial Bus, is a device system designed for the accessories of
the computer system, it allows you to hot swap any devices that is designed for the port.
Some of these devices include: Keyboard, Mouse, Game Controllers, Lights, Fans and
a slew of other things.
40. AUDIO PORT An audio port on a computer is any receptacle or jack to which an
audio device such as speakers, headphones or a microphone can be connected.
headphonespeakermicrophone
41. VGA PORT A Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector is a three-row 15-pin DE-15
connector. The 15-pin VGA connector is found on many video cards, computer
monitors, and high definition television sets. VGA Connector Female VGA Connector
Male