Lab Report

( Introduction to Motherboard )

Introduction History Differences between motherboards Main Board Components

Chipset USB Connector DIMM Socket CPU Socket BIOS CMOS ISA Slot PCI Slot ATX Connector COM Ports AGP IDE Connector Floppy Drive Connector

Definition:

A motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the main board, system board. The motherboard contains the connectors for attaching additional boards. Typically, the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive.

History of Motherboard :

Before the invention of microprocessors, computers were built in mainframes, with components which were connected by a backplane that had countless slots for connecting wires. In old designs, wires were needed to connect card connector pins but, soon they became a thing of past with the invent of PCBs. The CPU, memory and other peripherals were all housed on this printed circuit board.During the late 1980s and 1990s, it was found that increasing the number of peripheral functions on the PCB was very economical. Hence, single Integrated Circuits (ICs), capable of supporting low-speed peripherals like serial ports , mouse, keyboards, etc., were

included on the motherboards. By the late 1990s, they began to have full range of audio, video, storage and networking functions on them. Higher end systems for 3D gaming and graphic cards were also include later.With the steadily declining costs and size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard. 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.

Differences between motherboards :

All motherboards are not born equal, and you can encounter myriad differences. The most important is the type of processor it supports. In addition, there will be memory module slots; expansion slots (such as PCI, PCIe and AGP) so you can add extras like sound and graphics cards; support for the hard and CD-ROM drives; and, finally, connectors for keyboard, mouse and peripherals. It's also becoming quite common for certain models of board to have some built-in basic sound or graphic capabilities, and even integrated networking capabilities. Some motherboards even have 2 network ports built in.

Motherboard supports a very large range of peripherals:

With the steadily declining costs and size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard. 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.

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

disk controllers for a floppy disk drive, up to 2 PATA drives, and up to 6 SATA drives integrated ATI Radeon graphics controller supporting 2D and 3D graphics, with VGA

and TV output integrated sound card supporting 8-channel audio and S/PDIF output Fast Ethernet network controller for 10/100 Mbit networking USB 2.0 controller supporting up to 12 USB ports IrDA controller for infrared data communication temperature, voltage, and fan-speed sensors that allow software to monitor the health of

computer components

Mainboard Components :

1. Chipset A chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product. A chipset is usually designed to work with a specific family of microprocessors.

Because it controls communications between the processor and external devices, the chipset plays a crucial role in determining system performance. Current manufacturers of chipsets for PC-compatible motherboards include NVIDIA, AMD, VIA Technologies, SiS, Intel and Broadcom. Apple computers and Unix workstations from Sun.

2. USB CONNECTORUSB (Universal Serial Bus) is a specification to establish communication between devices and a host controller (usually personal computers). USB is intended to replace many varieties of serial and parallel ports. USB can connect computer peripheral such as mice, keyboards, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives. For many of those devices, USB has become the standard connection method. USB was designed for personal computers , but it has become commonplace on other devices such as smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles, and as a power card between a device and an AC adapter plugged into a wall plug for charging. As of 2008, there are about 2 billion USB devices sold per year, and approximately 6 billion total sold to date.

The Universal Serial Bus gives you a single, standardized, easy-to-use way to connect up to 127 devices to a computer. A sample list of USB devices that you can buy today includes:

•Printers

•Scanners

•Mice

•Joysticks

•Flight yokes

•Digital cameras

•Webcams

•Scientific data acquisition devices

•Modems

•Speakers

•Telephones

•Video phones •Storage devices such as Zip drives •Network connections

3. DIMM SOCKETA DIMM, or dual in-line memory module, comprises a series of dynamic rtandon access memory integrated circuits.These modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, work stations and servers.DIMMs began to replace SIMM (single in-line memory modules) as the predominant type of memory modules intel`s Pentiums processors began to gain market share. The main difference between SIMMs and DIMMs is that standard SIMMs have a 32-bit data path, while standard DIMMs have a 64-bit data path

Two types of DIMMs: a 168-pin SDRAM module (top) and a 184-pin DDR SDRAM module.

4. Cpu socketA CPU socket or CPU slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board and is designed to house a microprocessor. It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin countsA CPU socket provides many functions, including providing a physical structure to support the CPU, providing support for a heatsink, facilitating replacement and most importantly forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB. CPU

sockets can most often be found in most desktop and server computers (laptops typically use surface mount CPUs), particularly those based on the Intel x86 architecture on the motherboard.

FunctionA CPU socket is often made up of plastic, a metal lever or latch and metal contacts for each of the pins or lands on the CPU. Most packages are keyed to ensure the proper insertion of the CPU. CPUs with a PGA package are inserted into the socket and the latch is closed. This has the effect of physically securing and protecting the CPU as well as causing an electrical connection between all the CPU pins and the socket. In the case of LGA the CPU is placed onto the socket and a latch is closed over the CPU, securing it. Most CPU sockets are designed to support the installation of a heatsink.

5. BIOSBois is a special software in order to connect between os & motherboard.It is known as first power on software of computer. Bois task is to prepare hardware and software for working computer. This process is known as booting. BIOS is an acronym for Basic Input Output System. It is a program that stores configuration details about your computer hardware and enables your computer to boot up. Every time your computer is switched on the BIOS loads configuration data into main memory, performs a routine diagnostic test on your hardware, then loads the operating system. The BIOS resides in a ROM chip, which is mounted on the motherboard, usually in a socket so it is removable.

Bios battery• Bios consist of memory part that is named eeprom • eeprom is the most important feature when the electricity break keeping the data thanks

to bios battery.• it keeps the motherboard alive when the computer is off.

6. CMOSA lot of information is recorded in the cmos chip. For instance which device is first boot cd-rom or floppywhich driver is installed in CMOS CHIP, POWER OPTIONS etc. A semiconductor technology that uses less power and generates less heat than bipolar semiconductor technologies

7. ISA slotISA(Industry Standard Architecture) It is the standard architecture of the Expansion bus. Motherboard may contain some slots to connect ISA compatible cards. Only some card that proper 16 bit system can be inserted here.

8. PCI SlotPCI slots ( peripheral component interconnect) for connecting PCI cards. PCI slots are designed 32 bit system. So, it uses more cimmon to ISA slots because it is much faster than ISA slots. That means card’s working performance is increase.

9. ATX connectorATX connector feature is provided power supply by motherboard.As long as the user does not touch mouse and keyboard, the screen is closed automatically via ATX connector.

10. COM PortsCOMs ports, where is part of computer, are motherboard’s external connection is via here.

11. AGPAGP(advanced graphic slot) Slots. There is only one on the motherboard. AGP slots are created special for display card.This slot works 128 bits system near to processor, the reason is that provide more faster data transfer among processor.

12. IDE connectorNo matter what you do with your comp¬uter, storage is an important part of your system. In fact, most personal computers have one or more of the following storage devices: • Floppy drive • Hard drive • CD-ROM drive Usually, these devices connect to the computer through an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface. Essentially, an IDE interface is a standard way for a storage device to connect to a computer. IDE is actually not the true technical name for the interface standard. The original name, AT Attachment (ATA), signified that the interface was initially developed for the IBM AT computer.There are two IDE connector on the motherboard these connector are for hard disc and CD-ROM.These connectors provide connection among motherboard-hard disc and motherboard-CD ROM by data cable.

13. Floppy drive connector

Data transfer is provided by cables

Sound Cards

A sound card allows a computer to create and record real, high-quality sound.

Numerous factors affect a sound card's abilities to provide clear, high-quality sound. When shopping for a sound card, pay attention to:

•ADC and DAC data capacity, measured in bits

•Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and total harmonic distortion (THD)

•Frequency response, or how loudly the card can play sounds at different frequencies

•Sampling rate

•Output channels, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound

•Supported application programming interfaces (APIs)

•Certifications, including Dolby Master and THX

Temperature and reliability :

Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such as the Northbridge, in modern motherboards. If the motherboard is not cooled properly, it can cause the computer to crash. Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power supply, was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s.

Bus Speed :

A bus is simply a circuit that connects one part of the motherboard to another. The more data a bus can handle at one time, the faster it allows information to travel. The speed of the bus, measured in megahertz (MHz), refers to how much data can move across the bus simultaneously.

How Motherboards Work :

If we have taken the case off of a computer, we have to see the one piece of equipment that ties everything together -- the motherboard. A motherboard allows all the parts of computer to receive power and communicate with one another.

Memory and Other Features :

We've established that the speed of the processor itself controls how quickly a computer thinks. The speed of the chipset and busses controls how quickly it can communicate with other parts of the computer. The speed of the RAM connection directly controls how fast the computer can access instructions and data, and therefore has a big effect on system performance. A fast processor with slow RAM is going nowhere.

Northbridge:

An integrated circuit (generally Intel or VIA) that is responsible for the communications between the CPU interface, AGP, PCI and the memory. The northbridge gets its name for commonly being North of the PCI bus. Below is a graphic illustration of the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and some basic explanations of each of the major portions of the motherboard, including the northbridge. As shown in the below picture, it's common for the northbridge and southbridge to have a heatsink; in addition, the northbridge is usually slightly larger than the southbridge.

Southbridge (computing) :

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.

List of motherboard manufacturers:

-Acer Inc.

-Albatron

-AOpen

-Arima Computer Corporation (Flextronics)

-ASUS

-ASRock

-Advansus (industrial motherboards)

-BFG Technologies

Chipsets for motherboards :

-Intel

-AMD

-Nvidia

-VIA Technologies

-Silicon Integrated Systems