How Motherboards Work

Motherboard Components: *Motherboard

• A motherboard is what 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 IBM PC motherboard had only a processor and card slots, but today, motherboards typically boast a wide variety of built-in features, and they directly affect a computer's capabilities and potential for upgrades.

*Sockets and CPUs

• When it comes to CPUs the first thing people think about is speed and performance.When computers first came out
• all computers had the same amount of pins called Pin Grid Array (PGA) and fit in
• a socket layout called socket 7. But today socket 7 CPUs are not in use anymore because as microprocessors progress
• they will need more and more pins for added features. For this they need a new layout called Land Grid Array (LGA), now
• the pins are on the the socket. There are certain motherboards for differnt types of layout.

*Bus Speed

• The circuit that connects one part of the motherboard to another is called “bus”. 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.
• The faster a computer's bus speed, the faster it will operate; nonetheless, fast bus speed cannot make up for a slow processor or chipset.

*Chipsets

• Chipsets are an integrated part of the motherboard. The chipsets are configured precisely to the CPU and can not be removed or upgraded.

*Memory

• The memory part of a the computer controls how much data the computer can have readily available. RAM makes up the bulk of a computer's memory.

• Much of the memory now a days is dual date rate (DDR) memory. means that the memory can transmit data twice per cycle instead of once, which makes the memory faster. Also, most motherboards have space for multiple memory chips, and on newer motherboards, they often connect to the northbridge via a dual bus instead of a single bus.

*Form Factor

• Form factor- the shape and layout of the motherboard.
• Ports on the motherboard:
• PCI- connects to video and sound cards as well as network cards
• AGP- port for video cards
• IDE- interfaces with the hard drive
• USB and FireWire- external peripherals

Jose Medina
Kobi Cohen
Oscar Betancourt
Sebastian Nicolosi