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See also: PC motherboard
Motherboard

The ASUS CUSL2-C motherboard
Connects to:
Form factors:
Common Manufacturers:

A motherboard is the central or primary circuit board (PCB) making up a complex electronic system, such as a modern computer. ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Asus () ( is a Taiwan -based multinational company that produces Motherboards Graphics cards Optical drives A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated A CPU socket or CPU slot is a connector on a computer's Motherboard that accepts a CPU and forms an electrical interface with it Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital For an account of the words periphery and peripheral as they are used in biology sociology politics computer hardware and other fields see the In Computer hardware, a 'port' serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices The ATX (for Advanced Technology Extended) form factor was created by Intel in 1995. microATX, also known as µATX (sometimes Transliterated as mATX or uATX on Online forums is a Small form factor standard ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Asus () ( is a Taiwan -based multinational company that produces Motherboards Graphics cards Optical drives Foxconn (富士康 is the Trade name of the Taiwan based firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Cases / Chassis List of Computer case manufacturers Akasa Antec AOpen AplusCase A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. It is also known as a mainboard, baseboard, system board, planar board, or, on Apple computers, a logic board, and is sometimes abbreviated casually as mobo. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics A logic board is the Apple Macintosh equivalent of a Motherboard. [1]

Most motherboards produced today are designed for so-called IBM-compatible computers, which held over 96% of the global personal computer market in 2005. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated [2] Motherboards for IBM-compatible computers are specifically covered in the PC motherboard article.

A motherboard, like a backplane, provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate, but unlike a backplane also contains the central processing unit and other subsystems such as real time clock, and some peripheral interfaces. A backplane (or "backplane system" is a circuit board (usually a Printed circuit board) that connects several connectors in parallel to each other so

A typical desktop computer is built with the microprocessor, main memory, and other essential components on the motherboard. A desktop computer is a Personal computer (PC in a form intended for regular use at a single location as opposed to a mobile Laptop or portable computer A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital Other components such as external storage, controllers for video display and sound, and peripheral devices are typically attached to the motherboard via edge connectors and cables, although in modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate these "peripherals" into the motherboard. External storage is any device that temporarily stores information for transporting from computer to computer A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to A sound card (also known as an audio card is a Computer Expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to/from a computer under For an account of the words periphery and peripheral as they are used in biology sociology politics computer hardware and other fields see the An edge connector is the portion of a Printed circuit board consisting of traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching socket

Contents

Components and functions

The 2004 K7VT4A Pro motherboard by ASRock. The chipset on this board consists of northbridge and southbridge chips.
The 2004 K7VT4A Pro[3] motherboard by ASRock. ASRock Inc produces Motherboards in the past mainly for the budget-mainstream sector but more recently also focusing on high-end motherboards The chipset on this board consists of northbridge and southbridge chips. The northbridge, also known as the memory controller hub ( MCH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually use 'northbridge' is traditionally one The Southbridge, also known as the I/O Controller Hub ( ICH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually

The motherboard of a typical desktop consists of a large printed circuit board. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces It holds electronic components and interconnects, as well as physical connectors (sockets, slots, and headers) into which other computer components may be inserted or attached.

Most motherboards include, at a minimum:

The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993. This board has 6 ISA slots but few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the lack of external connectors.
The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993. [6] This board has 6 ISA slots but few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the lack of external connectors. Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) was a Computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers

Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly-used input devices, such as PS/2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard. The PS/2 connector is used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) Early personal computers such as the Apple II or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Occasionally video interface hardware was also integrated into the motherboard; for example on the Apple II, and rarely on IBM-comatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. The IBM PCjr (read "PC junior" was IBM 's first attempt to enter the market for relatively inexpensive Educational and home-use personal Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards. The disk controller (or "hard disk controller" is the circuit which allows the CPU to communicate with a Hard disk, Floppy disk or In Computing, a serial port is a Serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one Bit at a time (contrast

Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heatsinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat. The Thermal Design Power (TDP (sometimes called Thermal Design Point) represents the maximum amount of power the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate A heat sink (or heatsink) is an environment or object that absorbs and dissipates heat from another object using Thermal contact (either direct or radiant A computer fan can be any fan inside a Computer case used for cooling purposes and may refer to fans that draw cooler air into the case from the outside expel warm

Integrated peripherals

Diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots.
Diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots.

With the steadily declining costs and size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard. Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside For an account of the words periphery and peripheral as they are used in biology sociology politics computer hardware and other fields see the By combining many functions on one PCB, the physical size and total cost of the system may be reduced; highly-integrated motherboards are thus especially popular in small form factor and budget computers. Small form factor ( SFF) computers are housed in smaller cases than typical Desktop computers While the term has no exact definition it generally includes

For example, the ECS RS485M-M,[7] a typical modern budget motherboard for computers based on AMD processors, has on-board support for a very large range of peripherals:

Expansion cards to support all of these functions would have cost hundreds of dollars even a decade ago, however as of April 2007 such highly-integrated motherboards are available for as little as $30 in the USA. April 2007 is the fourth month of that year It began on a Sunday and 30 days later ended on a Monday.

Temperature and reliability

Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such as the northbridge, in modern motherboards. Air cooling is a method of dissipating Heat. It works by making the object to be cooled have a larger surface area or have an increased flow of air over its surface or both A heat sink (or heatsink) is an environment or object that absorbs and dissipates heat from another object using Thermal contact (either direct or radiant Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power supply, was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s; since then, most have required CPU fans mounted on their heatsinks, due to rising clock speeds and power consumption. A computer fan can be any fan inside a Computer case used for cooling purposes and may refer to fans that draw cooler air into the case from the outside expel warm Most motherboards have connectors for additional case fans as well. Newer motherboards have integrated temperature sensors to detect motherboard and CPU temperatures, and controllable fan connectors which the BIOS or operating system can use to regulate fan speed. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination

Some small form factor computers and home theater PCs designed for quiet and energy-efficient operation boast fan-less designs. Small form factor ( SFF) computers are housed in smaller cases than typical Desktop computers While the term has no exact definition it generally includes A Home Theater PC ( HTPC) or media PC is a convergence device that combines the functions of a Personal computer and a Digital video recorder. This typically requires the use of a low-power CPU, as well as careful layout of the motherboard and other components to allow for heat sink placement.

A 2003 study[8] found that some spurious computer crashes and general reliability issues, ranging from screen image distortions to I/O read/write errors, can be attributed not to software or peripheral hardware but to aging capacitors on PC motherboards. A capacitor is a passive electrical component that can store Energy in the Electric field between a pair of conductors Ultimately this was shown to be the result of a faulty electrolyte formulation. [9]

For more information on premature capacitor failure on PC motherboards, see capacitor plague. The capacitor plague (also known as bulging capacitors, bad capacitors, bad caps, popped caps, swollen caps or bloated capacitors

Motherboards use electrolytic capacitors to filter the DC power distributed around the board. An electrolytic capacitor is a type of Capacitor that uses an ionic conducting liquid as one of its plates These capacitors age at a temperature-dependent rate, as their water based electrolytes slowly evaporate. An electrolyte is any substance containing free Ions that behaves as an electrically conductive medium This can lead to loss of capacitance and subsequent motherboard malfunctions due to voltage instabilities. Electrical tension (or voltage after its SI unit, the Volt) is the difference of electrical potential between two points of an electrical While most capacitors are rated for 2000 hours of operation at 105 °C,[10] their expected design life roughly doubles for every 10 °C below this. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. At 45 °C a lifetime of 15 years can be expected. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. This appears reasonable for a computer motherboard, however many manufacturers have delivered substandard capacitors, which significantly reduce this life expectancy. Inadequate case cooling and elevated temperatures easily exacerbate this problem. It is possible, but tedious and time-consuming, to find and replace failed capacitors on PC motherboards; it is less expensive to buy a new motherboard than to pay for such a repair.

History

Prior to the advent of the microprocessor, a computer was usually built in a card-cage case or mainframe with components connected by a backplane consisting of a set of slots themselves connected with wires; in very old designs the wires were discrete connections between card connector pins, but printed-circuit boards soon became the standard practice. A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as Big Iron) are Computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications typically bulk data A backplane (or "backplane system" is a circuit board (usually a Printed circuit board) that connects several connectors in parallel to each other so The central processing unit, memory and peripherals were housed on individual printed circuit boards which plugged into the backplane.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of peripheral functions onto the motherboard (see above). In the late 1980s, motherboards began to include single ICs (called Super I/O chips) capable of supporting a set of low-speed peripherals: keyboard, mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. " 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 of the late 1990s, many personal computer motherboards support a full range of audio, video, storage, and networking functions without the need for any expansion cards at all; higher-end systems for 3D gaming and computer graphics typically retain only the graphics card as a separate component. Computer graphics are Graphics created by Computers and more generally the Representation and Manipulation of Pictorial Data

The early pioneers of motherboard manufacturing were Micronics, Mylex, AMI, DTK, Hauppauge, Orchid Technology, Elitegroup, DFI, and a number of Taiwan-based manufacturers.

Popular personal computers such as the Apple II and IBM PC had published schematic diagrams and other documentation which permitted rapid reverse-engineering and third-party replacement motherboards. Usually intended for building new computers compatible with the exemplars, many motherboards offered additional performance or other features and were used to upgrade the manufacturer's original equipment.

Bootstrapping using the BIOS

Main article: booting

Motherboards contain some non-volatile memory to initialize the system and load an operating system from some external peripheral device. In Computing, booting ( booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts Operating systems when the user turns on a Computer system An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microcomputers such as the Apple II and IBM PC used read-only memory chips, mounted in sockets on the motherboard. At power up the central processor would load its program counter with the address of the boot ROM and start executing ROM instructions, which would in turn start loading memory from an external peripheral device (disk drive).


Most modern motherboard designs use a BIOS, stored in a EEPROM chip soldered to the motherboard, to bootstrap the motherboard. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs EEPROM (also written E2PROM and pronounced e-e-prom or simply e-squared which stands for E lectrically E rasable P rogrammable A solder is a fusible metal Alloy with a melting point or melting range of 90 to 450 ° C (200 to 840 ° F) used in a process called (Socketed BIOS chips are widely used, also. ) By booting the motherboard, the memory, circuitry, and peripherals are tested and configured. This process is known as a Power On Self Test or POST. Power-on self-test (POST is the common term for a computer router or printer's pre-boot sequence. Errors during POST result in POST error codes, ranging from simple audible beeps from the speaker to complex diagnostic messages displayed on the video monitor. A video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, is a device similar to a Television, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device such as a media

The BIOS often requires configuration settings to be stored on the motherboard. Since configuration settings must be easily edited, these settings are often stored in non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) rather than in some sort of read-only memory (ROM). Non-volatile Random access memory ( NVRAM) is the general name used to describe any type of random access memory which does not lose its information When a user makes configuration changes or alters the date and time of the computer, this small NVRAM circuit stores the data. Typically, a small, long-lasting battery (e. In electronics a battery is a combination of two or more Electrochemical cells which store chemical Energy which can be converted into electrical energy g. a lithium coin cell CR2032) is used to keep the NVRAM "refreshed" for many years. A watch battery, button cell, silver button cell, or coin cell is a small form-factor battery designed for use in wrist watches pocket Therefore, a failing battery on a motherboard will produce the symptoms of a computer that cannot determine the correct date and time, nor remember what hardware configuration the user has selected. The BIOS itself is unaffected by the status of the battery.

When IBM first introduced the PC in the 1980s, imitations were quite common. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. (The physical parts which made up the motherboard were trivial to acquire. ) However, the imitations were never successful until the IBM ROM BIOS was legally copied. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs [11] To understand why copying the BIOS was an important step, consider that the BIOS contained vital instructions which interacted with peripherals. Without these software instructions in the BIOS, a PC would not function properly. (In most modern computer operating systems, the BIOS is bypassed for most hardware functions, but in the 1980s, the BIOS served many vital low-level functions. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs )

So when Compaq Computer Corp. Compaq Computer Corporation was an American Personal computer company founded in 1982 and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard. spent US$1 million to clone the IBM BIOS using reverse engineering, they became an elite computer manufacturer of IBM PC Clones. Reverse engineering (RE is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device object or system through analysis of its structure function and operation Phoenix Technology soon matched their feat and began reselling BIOSes to other clone makers. [12] It has been noted that Microsoft was more than happy to license the operating system (DOS), and IBM was more than happy to sue companies[13] that violated the copyright of their BIOS. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market But by documenting and publicizing the reverse engineering of the BIOS, Compaq and Phoenix were legally competing with IBM using their own copyrighted BIOS. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for

Once the bootstrapping of the computer's peripherals are complete, the BIOS will normally pass control to another set of instructions stored on a bootable device.

Devices which are normally used to boot a computer:

Any of the above devices can be stored with machine code instructions to load an operating system or a program. A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is AT Attachment with Packet Interface ( ATA/ATAPI) is a standard interface used to connect storage devices such as Hard disks Solid-state A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data executed directly by a Computer 's Central processing unit. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer.

Form factors

Main article: Comparison of computer form factors

Motherboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes ("form factors"), some of which are specific to individual computer manufacturers. This article compares the IBM compatible Personal computer Motherboard form factors – that is the different sizes and specific or de-facto standards of major system This article compares the IBM compatible Personal computer Motherboard form factors – that is the different sizes and specific or de-facto standards of major system Cases / Chassis List of Computer case manufacturers Akasa Antec AOpen AplusCase However, the motherboards used in IBM-compatible commodity computers have been standardized to fit various case sizes. Commodity computing is computing done on commodity computers as opposed to supermicrocomputers or boutique computers A computer case (also known as the computer chassis, cabinet, tower, box, enclosure, housing or simply case As of 2007, most desktop computer motherboards use one of these standard form factors—even those found in Macintosh and Sun computers which have not traditionally been built from commodity components. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. A desktop computer is a Personal computer (PC in a form intended for regular use at a single location as opposed to a mobile Laptop or portable computer Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services

Laptop computers generally use highly integrated, miniaturized, and customized motherboards. A laptop computer, also known as a notebook computer, is a small Personal computer designed for mobile use. This is one of the reasons that laptop computers are difficult to upgrade and expensive to repair. Often the failure of one laptop component requires the replacement of the entire motherboard, which is usually more expensive than a desktop motherboard due to the large number of integrated components.

See also

Motherboards for sale at retail.
Motherboards for sale at retail.

Notes

  1. ^ The abbreviated name "mobo" is generally credited to the magazine Maximum PC. A backplane (or "backplane system" is a circuit board (usually a Printed circuit board) that connects several connectors in parallel to each other so International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology A computer case (also known as the computer chassis, cabinet, tower, box, enclosure, housing or simply case In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs A chipset is a group of Integrated circuits or chips that are designed to work together and are usually marketed as a single product In Personal computers the Front Side Bus ( FSB) is the bus that carries data between the CPU and the northbridge. Cases / Chassis List of Computer case manufacturers Akasa Antec AOpen AplusCase An offboard circuit is one that is not connected to a main Circuit board in an electronic system The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (commonly PCI) specifies a Computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a Computer Not to be confused with PCI-X, a different bus architecture Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) was a Computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers Maximum PC, formerly known as boot, is an American Magazine published by Future US, and focuses on modern day
  2. ^ See the chart at the bottom of this page: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/10
  3. ^ K7VT4A Pro. Retrieved on 2007-06-27. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden
  4. ^ In the case of CPUs in BGA packages, such as the VIA C3, the CPU is directly soldered to the motherboard. BGA can refer to Ball Grid Array, a type of surface-mount packaging used for integrated circuits Battle Ground Academy, a private school The VIA C3 is a family of X86 Central processing units for Personal computers designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies
  5. ^ As of 2007, some graphics cards (e. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to g. GeForce 8 and Radeon R600) require more power than the motherboard can provide, and thus dedicated connectors have been introduced to attach them directly to the power supply. The GeForce 8 Series is the eighth generation of NVIDIA 's GeForce graphics cards The Graphics processing unit (GPU codenamed R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series Video (Note that most disk drives also connect to the power supply via dedicated connectors. Disk storage is a general category of a Computer storage mechanisms in which data is recorded on planar round and rotating surfaces ( disks, discs, or )
  6. ^ Golden Oldies: 1993 mainboards. Retrieved on 2007-06-27. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden
  7. ^ RS485M-M (V1.0). Retrieved on 2007-06-27. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden
  8. ^ c't Magazine, vol. c't (short for Computertechnik, ie computer technology originally an abbreviation for computing today) is a German computer Magazine, published 21, pp. 216-221. 2003.
  9. ^ Yu-Tzu Chiu, Samuel K. Moore "Faults & Failures: Leaking Capacitors Muck up Motherboards" (2003-02-19) IEEE Spectrum accessed 2008-03-10
  10. ^ See the capacitor lifetime formula at [1]. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum
  11. ^ I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Real Trouble | PBS
  12. ^ Reverse-Engineering
  13. ^ like Eagle Computer and Corona Data Products, both sued by IBM. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology

External links

Dictionary

motherboard

-noun

  1. (computing) the primary circuit board of a personal computer, containing the circuitry for the central processing unit, keyboard, mouse and monitor, together with slots for other devices
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