Seminar on Motherboard

Submitted in
Partial Fulfillment of the requirements
For the Diploma of
Post Graduation Diploma In Computer Application
(PGDCA)

Submitted To:- Submitted By:-

Mr. Shyam Lal Chaudhary Parul Vishwakarma
HOD Branch: PGDCA
CONTENT:-

 Motherboard
 Description of Motherboard
 Features of Motherboard
 Popular Manufacturers
 Basic Components Of Motherboard
 Form factors
 Chipsets

 Bus Speed

 Processor sockets
 Memory slots
 Expansion slots
 Disk Connectors
 Power connectors
 BIOS/firmware
 CMOS and CMOS battery
 Back-panel connectors

 Ports

 Front-panel connectors
Motherboard:-

If you've ever taken the case off of a computer, you've seen the one
piece of equipment that ties everything together -- the
motherboard. A motherboard allows all the parts of your computer
to receive power and communicate with one another.

Motherboards have come a long way in the last twenty years. The
first motherboards held very few actual components. The first
IBM PC motherboard had only a processor and card slots. Users
plugged components like floppy drive controllers and memory into
the slots.
The motherboard serves as a single platform to connect all of the
parts of a computer together and it acts as a nervous system of the
computer. It can be also called system board or main board. It
connects the CPU, memory, hard drives, optical drives, video card,
sound card, and other ports and expansion cards directly or via
cables. It can be considered as the backbone of a computer.
Description of Motherboard:-

The motherboard is mounted inside the case and is securely

attached via small screws through pre-drilled holes. Motherboard
contains ports to connect all of the internal components. It provides
a single socket for CPU, whereas for memory, normally one or more
slots are available. Motherboards provide ports to attach the floppy
drive, hard drive, and optical drives via ribbon cables. Motherboard
carries fans and a special port designed for power supply.
There is a peripheral card slot in front of the motherboard using
which video cards, sound cards, and other expansion cards can be
connected to the motherboard.
On the left side, motherboards carry a number of ports to connect
the monitor, printer, mouse, keyboard, speaker, and network
cables. Motherboards also provide USB ports, which allow
compatible devices to be connected in plug-in/plug-out fashion. For
example, pen drive, digital cameras, etc.
Features of Motherboard:-

A motherboard comes with following features –

 Motherboard varies greatly in supporting various types of

components.
 Motherboard supports a single type of CPU and few types of
memories.
 Video cards, hard disks, sound cards have to be compatible
with the motherboard to function properly.
 Motherboards, cases, and power supplies must be compatible
to work properly together.

Popular Manufacturers:-
Following are the popular manufacturers of the motherboard.

 Intel
 ASUS
 ASRock
 Digilite
 Biostar
 Gigabyte
 MSI
 ECS

Basic Components Of Motherboard:-

The motherboard itself is a combinations of different components

and some of the basic components of the motherboard are following
 Form factors
 Chipsets
 Processor sockets
 Memory slots
 Expansion slots
 Disk Connectors
 Power connectors
 BIOS/firmware
 CMOS and CMOS battery
 Back-panel connectors
 Front-panel connectors

The following figure shows the motherboard with its parts

highlighted.
 Figure: Different components of Motherboard

Form Factor:-

A motherboard by itself is useless, but a computer has to have one to

operate. The motherboard's main job is to hold the computer's
microprocessor chip and let everything else connect to it. Everything
that runs the computer or enhances its performance is either part of
the motherboard or plugs into it via a slot or port.
The shape and layout of a motherboard is called the form factor. The
form factor affects where individual components go and the shape of
the computer's case. There are several specific form factors that
most PC motherboards use so that they can all fit in standard cases.
The common form factors used nowadays are following

 ATX (Advanced Technology Extended)

 Micro ATX
 ITX (Information Technology Extended

ITX is a collection of SFF (Small form factor) boards. Baby AT was

designed and made by the IBM and ATX is made by Intel.

Figure: Different form factors

Chipsets:-

The chipset is the "glue" that connects the microprocessor to the rest
of the motherboard and therefore to the rest of the computer. On a
PC, it consists of two basic parts -- the northbridge and
the southbridge. All of the various components of the computer
communicate with the CPU through the chipset.
The northbridge connects directly to the processor via the front side
bus (FSB). A memory controller is located on the northbridge, which
gives the CPU fast access to the memory. The northbridge also
connects to the AGP or PCI Express bus and to the memory itself.
The southbridge is slower than the northbridge, and information
from the CPU has to go through the northbridge before reaching the
southbridge. Other busses connect the southbridge to the PCI bus,
the USB ports and the IDE or SATA hard disk connections.
Chipset selection and CPU selection go hand in hand, because
manufacturers optimize chipsets to work with specific CPUs. The
chipset is an integrated part of the motherboard, so it cannot be
removed or upgraded. This means that not only must the
motherboard's socket fit the CPU, the motherboard's chipset must
work optimally with the CPU.
Figure: Northbridge and Southbridge architecture on chipset
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.
Bus speed usually refers to the speed of the front side bus (FSB),
which connects the CPU to the northbridge. FSB speeds can range
from 66 MHz to over 800 MHz. Since the CPU reaches the memory
controller though the northbridge, FSB speed can dramatically affect
a computer's performance.
Here are some of the other busses found on a motherboard:

 The back side bus connects the CPU with the level 2 (L2) cache,
also known as secondary or external cache. The processor
determines the speed of the back side bus.
 The memory bus connects the northbridge to the memory.
 The IDE or ATA bus connects the southbridge to the disk drives.
 The AGP bus connects the video card to the memory and
the CPU. The speed of the AGP bus is usually 66 MHz.
 The PCI bus connects PCI slots to the southbridge. On most
systems, the speed of the PCI bus is 33 MHz. Also compatible
with PCI is PCI Express, which is much faster than PCI but is still
compatible with current software and operating systems. PCI
Express is likely to replace both PCI and AGP busses.

The faster a computer's bus speed, the faster it will operate -- to a

point. A fast bus speed cannot make up for a slow processor or
chipset.
Sockets and CPUs:-

The CPU is the first thing that comes to mind when many people
think about a computer's speed and performance. The faster the
processor, the faster the computer can think. In the early days of PC
computers, all processors had the same set of pins that would
connect the CPU to the motherboard, called the Pin Grid
Array (PGA). These pins fit into a socket layout called Socket 7. This
meant that any processor would fit into any motherboard.
Today, however, CPU manufacturers Intel and AMD use a variety of
PGAs, none of which fit into Socket 7. As microprocessors advance,
they need more and more pins, both to handle new features and to
provide more and more power to the chip.
Current socket arrangements are often named for the number of
pins in the PGA. Commonly used sockets are:

 Socket 478 - for older Pentium and Celeron processors

 Socket 754 - for AMD Sempron and some AMD Athlon
processors
 Socket 939 - for newer and faster AMD Athlon processors
 Socket AM2 -for the newest AMD Athlon processors
 Socket A - for older AMD Athlon processors
The newest Intel CPU does not have a PGA. It has an LGA, also
known as Socket T. LGA stands for Land Grid Array. An LGA is
different from a PGA in that the pins are actually part of the
socket, not the CPU. Mainly LGA sockets are mainly used today
because there is a less chance of damaging of the processor
because the pins are built in the sockets not in the processor.

Anyone who already has a specific CPU in mind should select a

motherboard based on that CPU. For example, if you want to use one
of the new multi-core chips made by Intel or AMD, you will need to
select a motherboard with the correct socket for those chips. CPUs
simply will not fit into sockets that don't match their PGA.
The CPU communicates with other elements of the motherboard
through a chipset.

Figure: PGA Processor Socket Figure : LGA Processor Socket

Memory Slots:-

Memory slots are used for holding memory chips that make up
primary memory that is used to store currently used data and
instructions for the CPU and that primary memory is also called RAM
(Random Access Memory). Memory for desktops comes on circuit
boards called dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) and for laptops
on small outline DIMMs (SODIMMs).

Memory slots are long and slender type and generally close to the
CPU socket. They are available in different colors and mostly in white
color.

Figure: Memory slots for DIMMs

Expansion Slots:-

Expansion slots are used to install various devices in the computer to

expand its capabilities and performance. Some expansion devices
that can be installed in these slots include video card, network card,
sound card, and disk interface cards.

The expansion slots have further three types which are using today
and that slots are:

 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots are usually 32 bits

slots, 3 inches long that are mostly in white color. This slots are
used for handing the Network card, SCSI, sound card, video card.
 AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port) slots are used for handling the
video graphics card and they are mostly in brown color and they
are slightly shorter than the PCI slots.
 PCIe ( Peripheral Component Interconnect Expense) slots are the
modern and usually faster than PCI and AGP and are mostly used
today for Video card, modem, sound card, network card. These
are found in different sizes.

The following figure shows the different expansion slots and notice
their color and sizes.

Figure: Different Expansion slots

Disk Connectors:-

Motherboards have Disk Connectors that are used for connecting the
hard drive which is permanent storing device. There are a few
different kinds of hard drive connectors available today. One
is Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) connector or Parallel Advanced
Technology Attachment (PATA) which is older one. The other one
is Serial ATA (SATA) which is newer and much faster than PATA.

PATA has large number of pins while SATA doesn’t have any pin.

Figure: SATA and PATA Connectors on Motherboard

Power Connectors:-

Motherboard require electricity for functioning and it has a special

24-pin block connector that allows the motherboard to be connected
to the power supply to receive power. This connector is where the
ATX power adapter plugs in.

Figure: ATX 24-pin Power connector

BIOS/Firmware:-

Firmware is a kind of software that is encoded in hardware like ROM

(Read only memory), and can be run without extra instructions from
the operating system. BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the one
of the best example of firmware in a computer which is burned into a
flash memory chip located on the motherboard. The BIOS chip is the
second most important chip in the computer after the CPU and this
chip contains the BIOS system software that boots the system and
initiates the memory and hard drive to allow the operating system to
start. BIOS chip can be recognized as it have on it the name of the
manufacturer and usually the word BIOS as shown in the figure below
with the manufacturer name AMI.

Figure: BIOS Chip on the motherboard

CMOS and CMOS Battery:-

The CMOS stands for complementary metal

oxide semiconductor and it is a special kind of chip technology used
to store the basic information like date and time, hard drive
configuration, memory and CPU settings, boot sequence, and power
management features when the system is on or turned off. We can
say that the chip is made through the CMOS technology and it has the
BIOS settings saved on it.

The CMOS chip have a battery which is integrated near the chip on
the motherboard and it is used to supply power continuously to the
CMOS chip so that the BIOS settings are permanently stored.

Normally, the CMOS battery is included next to the BIOS chip as

shown in the figure below.

Figure: CMOS chip and the CMOS Battery

Back-Panel Connectors:-

There are different types of connectors attached on the back of the

motherboard which include power connector, video connector, audio
connector, a keyboard and mouse connectors, networking like
Ethernet connector, and sometimes USB connectors.

Figure: Back-Panel Connectors of the Motherboard

Port:-

A port is a physical docking point using which an external device can

be connected to the computer. It can also be programmatic docking
point through which information flows from a program to the
computer or over the Internet.

Characteristics of Ports:-

A port has the following characteristics –

 External devices are connected to a computer using cables and

ports.
 Ports are slots on the motherboard into which a cable of
external device is plugged in.
 Examples of external devices attached via ports are the mouse,
keyboard, monitor, microphone, speakers, etc.
Let us now discuss a few important types of ports –

Serial Port:-

 Used for external modems and older computer mouse

 Two versions: 9 pin, 25 pin model
 Data travels at 115 kilobits per second

Parallel Port:-

 Used for scanners and printers

 Also called printer port
 25 pin model
 IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port

PS/2 Port:-

 Used for old computer keyboard and mouse

 Also called mouse port
 Most of the old computers provide two PS/2 port, each for the
mouse and keyboard
 IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port
Universal Serial Bus (or USB) Port:-

 It can connect all kinds of external USB devices such as external

hard disk, printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, etc.
 It was introduced in 1997.
 Most of the computers provide two USB ports as minimum.
 Data travels at 12 megabits per seconds.
 USB compliant devices can get power from a USB port.

VGA Port:-

 Connects monitor to a computer's video card.

 It has 15 holes.
 Similar to the serial port connector. However, serial port
connector has pins, VGA port has holes.

Power Connector:-

 Three-pronged plug.
 Connects to the computer's power cable that plugs into a
power bar or wall socket.
Firewire Port:-

 Transfers large amount of data at very fast speed.

 Connects camcorders and video equipment to the computer.
 Data travels at 400 to 800 megabits per seconds.
 Invented by Apple.
 It has three variants: 4-Pin FireWire 400 connector, 6-Pin
FireWire 400 connector, and 9-Pin FireWire 800 connector.

Modem Port:-

 Connects a PC's modem to the telephone network.

Ethernet Port:-

 Connects to a network and high speed Internet.

 Connects the network cable to a computer.
 This port resides on an Ethernet Card.
 Data travels at 10 megabits to 1000 megabits per seconds
depending upon the network bandwidth.
Game Port:-

 Connect a joystick to a PC
 Now replaced by USB

Digital Video Interface, DVI port:-

 Connects Flat panel LCD monitor to the computer's high-end

video graphic cards.
 Very popular among video card manufacturers.
Sockets:-

 Sockets connect the microphone and speakers to the sound

card of the computer.
Front-Panel Connectors:-

There can also be different types of connectors attached on the front

of the motherboard which include Power Button, Restart button,
Audio ports for Microphone, headphones and speakers, and USB
ports etc.

Figure: Front panel connectors of the motherboard

This was all about Motherboard and its subparts.

Thanks for Reading…!!!