Computer Motherboard

Computer Motherboard
 The motherboard is the main printed circuit board. It contains the buses, or
electrical pathways, found in a computer.

 These buses allow data to travel between the various components that
comprise a computer.

 A motherboard is also known as the system board, backplane, or main

board.

 The motherboard accommodates (hold) the central processing unit (CPU),

RAM, expansion slots, heat sink/fan assembly, BIOS chip, chip set, and the
embedded wires that interconnect the motherboard components. Sockets,
internal and external connectors, and various ports are also placed on the
motherboard.
The form factor of motherboards pertains (relate) to the board’s size
and shape. It also describes the physical layout (plan) of the different
components and devices on the motherboard. Motherboards have various
form factors:

 Advanced Technology (AT)

 Advanced Technology Extended (ATX)
 Smaller footprint than Advanced Technology Extended (Mini-ATX)
 Smaller footprint than Advanced Technology Extended (Micro-ATX)
 Low-Profile Extended (LPX)
 New Low-Profile Extended (NLX)
 Balanced technology Extended (BTX
Advanced Technology (AT)
 They are distinguished by their shape and usually by the presence of single
full sized keyboard connector soldered onto the motherboard.
 All other devices are connected to the motherboard via cards and
expansion slots or cables.
 The serial and parallel ports are attached using cables that go between the
physical connectors mounted on the case and pin headers located on the
motherboard.
 AT motherboards get power through P8 and P9 connectors.
Advanced Technology Extended (ATX)
 The ATX motherboard is rotated 90 degrees; the processor sits near the
back of the board
 In ATX motherboards, the connectors COM1, COM2, LPT, keyboard, mouse,
and USB are directly mounted on the motherboard. This motherboard
requires a specifically designed chassis with an I/O access opening.
Some of the advantages of ATX over AT are:
1) Soft power support: the ATX power supply is turned on and off using
signaling from the motherboard, not a physical toggle switch. This allows the
PC to be turned on or off under software control, allowing improved power
management.
2) Reduced expansion card interference: the CPU and memory modules are
relocated so they can’t interfere with any bus expansion cards. This makes
upgrade easy because removing any installed cards is not necessary.
3)Reduced drive bay interference: since the board is essentially 90 degrees
form AT style, there is much less overlap between the board and drive bays.
This means easier to access the motherboard and fewer cooling problem.
4) Better Power Connector: ATX uses a single 20-pin connector instead of two
confusing connectors. You don’t have the risk of blowing up your pc
motherboard by connecting the power cable backwards.
5) Better air flow (cooling effect): The ATX power is intended to blow air into
the case rather than out of it. This cuts down dust. Furthermore, processor
sockets and RAM are located next to power supply. Because of this the power
supply fan can cool CPU heat sink. Current power supply fans blow air into or
out of the case.
6) Integrated I/O connectors: AT motherboard uses pins and cables. In ATX,
the port is directly mounted on the motherboard. This improvement saves
cost, installation time, and improved reliability.
Balanced technology Extended (BTX)
 The BTX, or Balanced Technology Extended form factor.
 BTX was developed to take advantage of technologies such as Serial ATA,
USB 2.0, and PCI Express. Changes to the layout with the BTX form factor
include better component placement for back panel I/O controllers and it is
smaller than micro ATX systems.
 The BTX form factor provides the industry push to tower size systems with
an increased number of system slots.
 One of the most talked about features of the BTX form factor is that it uses
in-line airflow.
 In the BTX form factor the memory slots and expansion slots have
switched places, allowing the main components (processor, chipset, and
graphics controller) to use the same airflow which reduces the number of
fans needed in the system; thereby reducing noise.
 1 CPU Socket
2 CPU_FAN - CPU cooling fan
connector
3 DIMM1~2 - 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM
slots
4 IRDA - Infrared header
5 FDD - Floppy diskette drive
connector
6 ATX1 - Standard 24-pin ATX power
connector
7 IDE1 - Primary IDE channel
8CLR_CMOS - Clear CMOS jumper
9SATA1~4 - Serial ATA connectors
10 PANEL1 - Panel connector for case
switches and LEDs
11 USB1-2 - Front Panel USB headers
18 AUX_IN - Auxiliary In connector
12 1394a - IEEE 1394a header
19 PCI1~2 - 32-bit add-on card slots
13 BIOS_WP - BIOS flash protect
20 PCIE1 - PCI Express x1 slot
jumper
21 PCIEX16 - PCI Express slot for graphics
14 COM2 - Onboard Serial port hider
interface
15 WOL1 - Wake On LAN connector
22 SYS_FAN - System cooling fan
16S/PDIF - SPDIF out header
connector
17 F_AUDIO - Front panel audio
23 ATX12V - Auxiliary 4-pin power
header
connector
Integrated I/Os
Rear panel on of a motherboard with many integrated inputs and outputs (I/O's).

 PS2 Mouse Used to connect a PS/2 pointing device.

 PS2 Keyboard Used to connect a PS/2 keyboard.
 Parallel Port (LPT1) Used to connect printers or other parallel communications
devices.
 Serial Port Used to connect serial devices such as mice or (COM1) fax/modems.
 VGA Port Connect your monitor to the VGA port.
 1394a Port Use the 1394a port to connect to any fire wire device.
 LAN Port Used to connect an RJ-45 cable to a Network hub or router.
 USB Ports Used to connect USB devices such as printers, scanners cameras et...
 Audio Ports Used to connect audio devices.
Computer Chipsets
 An important set of components on the motherboard is the chip set. The
chip set is composed of various integrated circuits attached to the
motherboard that control how system hardware interacts with the CPU and
motherboard.
 The CPU is installed into a slot or socket on the motherboard. The socket
on the motherboard determines the type of CPU that can be installed.
 The chip set of a motherboard allows the CPU to communicate and interact
with the computer’s other components and to exchange data with system
memory (RAM), hard-disk drives, video cards, and other output devices.
 The chip set establishes how much memory can be added to a
motherboard. The chip set also determines the type of connectors on the
motherboard.
 Most chip sets are divided into two distinct components, North Bridge
and South Bridge. What each component does varies from manufacturer
to manufacturer, but in general the North Bridge controls access to the
RAM, video card, and the speeds at which the CPU can communicate with
them.
Northbridge
 The Northbridge, also known as a memory controller hub (MCH) or an
integrated memory controller (IMC) in Intel systems is one of the two chips
in the core logic chipset on a PC motherboard, the other being the
Southbridge.
 Separating the chipset into the Northbridge and Southbridge is common,
although there are rare instances where these two chips have been
combined onto one die when design complexity and fabrication processes
permit it.
 The Northbridge typically handles communications among the CPU, RAM,
Southbridge
 BIOS ROM, and PCI Express (or AGP) video cards, and the Southbridge
The Southbridge also known as an I/O Controller Hub (ICH) in Intel
systems, it is a chip that implements the "slower" capabilities of the
motherboard in Northbridge/ Southbridge chipset computer architecture.
 The Southbridge can usually be distinguished from the Northbridge by not
being directly connected to the CPU. Rather, the Northbridge ties the
Southbridge to the CPU. Through the use of controller integrated channel
circuitry, the Northbridge can directly link signals from the I/O units to the
CPU for data control and access.
Some of the key components found on a motherboard include:
 The CPU (microprocessor)
 Microchips that provide support for the CPU.
 Random Access Memory (RAM) chips.
 The system Bus
 A Keyboard controller and connector.
 A mouse connector.
 Power connectors.
 Serial and parallel communications ports.

Some of the most recent boards also contain:

 Integrated IDE disk controller circuits.

 USB Bus controller circuits.
 Built in video controller/adapters.
 Built in sound card circuits.
The motherboard also contains other components such as BIOS chips, the
CPU clock, cache chips, bus, etc. To see every detail, you will need to get a
"User's Manual" for the specific motherboard you have, and to locate all
components on the board.
 It is the system board components that determine the capability and speed
of a computer. Several factors determine the overall performance of a
system.

 Speed - The processor clock speed, size of the internal and external data
bus, and the processors design all determine the systems overall speed.
 Configuration - The way the individual parts of the board are layered out
and connected.
 Memory - How much memory is on the board? What type of memory is
being used?
 Bus Type - Does the system support ISA, or PCI buses? The actual speed of
the bus makes a difference.

 There are two different types of motherboards used in computers today:

the AT and ATX. Each one uses different design techniques depending on
the CPU chip and bus type and size used.
Each of the components on a motherboard serves specific functions:
 BUS- The bus is actually a set of circuits that run throughout the board and
connect all the expansion slots, memory, and CPU, etc. together.
 Expansion Slots - Used for connecting other devices/controller cards to the
motherboard bus.
 Memory Slots - provides receptacles for adding additional memory chips
(SIMMs, DIMMs, or other types of memory).
 ZIF Socket -The processor slot on modern boards is a grid of tiny holes in
which the CPU is inserted. Older model boards required a considerable
amount of force to install or remove the CPU chip. The Zero Insertion Force
(ZIF) socket required a minimal force to insert and remove the chip. The
ZIF socket has a lever at the side of the socket that allows quick removal of
the CPU Chip.
 BIOS Chips - The method used in DOS to communicate with any device on
the system such as disks, keyboard, monitor, etc. Directs only system
hardware, not network hardware.
 USB Port - some newer machines will have a port for the Universal Serial
Bus (USB) connection. The USB port will support up to 127 devices and
runs at a speed of about 1.544MB.
 Chip Set The "Chipset" is the set of integrated circuits that control most of
the activities that take place on the motherboard. They also interface with
most of the circuits of the motherboard.