LESSON 6:
Motherboard: Components
and Functions
PreparedTechnology
McGraw-Hill by: Ethelbert
EducationE. Allon, LPT
Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Content
• Introduction : What is a Motherboard?
• Main Components of Motherboard
➢CPU Socket
➢Memory Slots
➢CMOS Battery
➢ISA, PCI and AGP Slots
➢Power Connectors
➢Chipset
➢Graphical Devices
➢Back Panel and Ports
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Motherboard
• A motherboard, also known as the primary circuit inside
the computer, and where the central processing unit(CPU),
Memory slots, drives and other peripherals.
• A motherboard provides the electrical connections by
which the other components of the system
communicate. it also connects the central processing
unit and hosts other subsystems and devices.
• An important component of a motherboard is the
microprocessor's supporting chipset, which provides the
supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various
buses and external components. This chipset determines,
to an extent, the features and capabilities of the
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motherboard.
Content
• Which device is the most important
in a computer?
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Content
CPU Hard Drive
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Content
CD / DVD ROM Monitor
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Content
• What do they connect to? What controls them?
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What is a Motherboard?
• A motherboard (sometimes alternatively known as the
mainboard, system board or mobo) is the main
printed circuit board (PCB) found in computers and
other expandable systems. It holds many of the
crucial electronic components of the system, such as
the central processing unit (CPU) and memory, and
provides connectors for other peripherals.
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What is a Motherboard?
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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). This allows
the CPU to be replaced without
soldering.
Common sockets have retention
clips that apply a constant force,
which must be overcome when a
device is inserted. For chips with
a large number of pins, either
zero insertion force (ZIF)
sockets or land grid array (LGA)
sockets are used instead.
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CPU SOCKET
CPU Socket
• links the motherboard to the CPU(s)
• built around the pin grid array (PGA) architecture
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CPU SOCKET
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MEMORY SLOTS
A memory slot, memory socket, or
RAM slot is what allows computer
memory (RAM) to be inserted into
the computer. Depending on the
motherboard, there will usually be 2
to 4 memory slots (sometimes
more on high-end motherboards)
and are what determine the type of
RAM used with the computer. The
most common types of RAM are
SDRAM and DDR for desktop
computers and SODIMM for laptop
computers, each having various
types and speeds. In the below
picture, is an example of what
memory slots may look like inside a
desktop computer. In this picture,
there are three open available slots
for three memory sticks.
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Types of RAM
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Types of RAM
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CMOS BATTERY
Nonvolatile BIOS memory
refers to a small memory on
PC motherboards that is
used to store BIOS
settings. It was traditionally
called CMOS RAM
because it used a volatile,
low-power complementary
metal-oxide-semiconductor
(CMOS) SRAM (such as
Motorola MC146818 or
similar) powered by a small
battery when system power
was off.
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CMOS BATTERY
CMOS
• Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor
• gives the board a small amount of power
• store some vital data (e.g. time, date, settings, etc)
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CMOS BATTERY
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ISA, PCI & AGP SLOTS
ISA, or Industry Standard
Architecture, is an 8bit or 16bit
parallel bus system that allowed
up to 6 devices to be connected
to a PC. Virtually all IBM-
compatible PCs made before the
Pentium were based on the ISA
(IBM's PC AT) bus. This
asynchronous bus architecture
uses 16-bit addresses and an 8-
MHz clock and handles a
maximum data throughput of 2
MB/s to 3 MB/s.
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ISA SLOTS
ISA Slots
• Industry Standard Architecture
• connect internal peripherals such as modems
and network cards
• run at only a 8Mhz maximum
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ISA, PCI & AGP SLOTS
AGP, Accelerates Graphics Port is a
high-speed point-to-point channel for
attaching a video card to a computer's
motherboard. The primary advantage
of AGP over PCI is that it provides a
dedicated pathway between the slot
and the processor rather than sharing
the PCI bus.
PCI, Peripheral Component
Interconnect bus uses a local bus
system; this system is independent
of the processor bus speed. The PCI
architecture incorporates its own
chip set which link the local bus to
the main bus, these links are called
bridges, there are two bridges which
"north and south bridge”
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PCI SLOTS
PCI Slots
• Peripheral Component Interconnect
• from 1 up to about 6 slots on a motherboard
• run at 33Mhz and normally 32bits
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• support plug and play
ISA, PCI & AGP SLOTS
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CHIPSET
A chipset is a set of electronic
components in an integrated
circuit that manages the data
flow between the processor,
memory and peripherals. It is
usually found in the
motherboard of a computer.
Chipsets are 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
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CHIPSET
Chipset
• group of integrated circuits
• divided into different parts
• each part provide specific functions
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CHIPSET
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CHIPSET
• Chip set is a set of
IC.
• The combination of
the North and
Southbridge
in a computer is
Called
the chipset.
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Internal Structure of North bridge &
South bridge
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SOUTHBRIDGE
The southbridge is one of the
two chips in the core logic
chipset on a personal
computer (PC) motherboard,
the other being the
northbridge. The southbridge
typically implements the
slower capabilities of the
motherboard in a
northbridge/southbridge
chipset computer architecture.
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SOUTHBRIDGE
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NORTHBRIDGE
The northbridge typically handles
communications among the
CPU, in some cases RAM, and
PCI Express (or AGP) video
cards, and the southbridge.[4][5]
Some northbridges also contain
integrated video controllers, also
known as a Graphics and
Memory Controller Hub (GMCH)
in Intel systems. Because
different processors and RAM
require different signaling, a
given northbridge will typically
work with only one or two classes
of CPUs and generally only one
type of RAM.
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NORTHBRIDGE
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GRAPHICAL DEVICES
A video card (also called a video
adapter, display card, graphics
card, graphics board, display
adapter or graphics adapter and
sometimes preceded by the
word discrete or dedicated to
emphasize the distinction
between this implementation
and integrated graphics) is an
expansion card which generates
a feed of output images to a
display (such as a computer
monitor).
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BACK PANEL CONNECTORS AND
PORTS
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PS/2 Connectors
PS/2 Connectors
• 2 PS/2 connectors: for mouse and for keyboard
• same size, same shape, different colours
• not interchangeable
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USB Port
USB Ports
• connect external components
• change the devices without switching the
power off
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POWER CONNECTORS
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