Motherboard

A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit

board, system board, baseboard, planar board, logic
board,[1] and mobo) is the main printed circuit board
(PCB) in general-purpose computers and other
expandable systems. It holds and allows communication
between many of the crucial electronic components of a
system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and
memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals.
Unlike a backplane, a motherboard usually contains Motherboard for a desktop personal computer,
significant sub-systems, such as the central processor, the showing the typical components and interfaces
chipset's input/output and memory controllers, interface that are found on a motherboard. This model
connectors, and other components integrated for general follows the microATX form factor, a common
use. motherboard layout used in many desktop PCs.

Motherboard means specifically a PCB with expansion

capabilities. As the name suggests, this board is often referred to as the "mother" of all components attached to
it, which often include peripherals, interface cards, and daughtercards: sound cards, video cards, network
cards, hard drives, and other forms of persistent storage; TV tuner cards, cards providing extra USB or
FireWire slots; and a variety of other custom components.

Similarly, the term mainboard describes a device with a single board

and no additional expansions or capability, such as controlling boards
in laser printers, television sets, washing machines, mobile phones,
and other embedded systems with limited expansion abilities.

The term Logic board is brand specific, coined by Apple in the early
1980's for the motherboards in Macintosh computers.[2]
Dell Precision T3600 System
Motherboard , used in professional
CAD Workstations. Manufactured in
Contents 2012

History
Design
Form factor
CPU sockets
Integrated peripherals
Peripheral card slots
Temperature and reliability
Bootstrapping using the Basic Input/Output System
See also
References
External links
History
Prior to the invention of the microprocessor, the digital computer consisted of multiple printed circuit boards in
a card-cage case with components connected by a backplane, a set of interconnected sockets. In very old
designs, copper wires were the discrete connections between card connector pins, but printed circuit boards
soon became the standard practice. The central processing unit (CPU), memory, and peripherals were housed
on individually printed circuit boards, which were plugged into the backplane. The ubiquitous S-100 bus of
the 1970s is an example of this type of backplane system.

The most popular computers of the 1990s 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.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of peripheral
functions onto the motherboard. In the late 1980s, personal computer motherboards began to include single
ICs (also called Super I/O chips) capable of supporting a set of low-speed peripherals: keyboard, mouse,
floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. By the late 1970s, many personal computer motherboards
included consumer-grade embedded 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 retained only the
graphics card as a separate component. Business PCs, workstations, and servers were more likely to need
expansion cards, either for more robust functions, or for higher speeds; those systems often had fewer
embedded components.

Laptop and notebook computers that were developed in the 1990s integrated the most common peripherals.
This even included motherboards with no upgradeable components, a trend that would continue as smaller
systems were introduced after the turn of the century (like the tablet computer and the netbook). Memory,
processors, network controllers, power source, and storage would be integrated into some systems.

Design
A motherboard provides the electrical connections by which the other
components of the system communicate. Unlike a backplane, it also
contains the central processing unit and hosts other subsystems and
devices.

A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory,

and other essential components connected to the motherboard. Other
components such as external storage, controllers for video display and
sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as The Octek Jaguar V motherboard
plug-in cards or via cables; in modern microcomputers it is from 1993.[3] This board has few
increasingly common to integrate some of these peripherals into the onboard peripherals, as evidenced by
motherboard itself. the 6 slots provided for ISA cards
and the lack of other built-in external
An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's interface connectors. Note the large
supporting chipset, which provides the supporting interfaces between AT keyboard connector at the back
the CPU and the various buses and external components. This chipset right is its only peripheral interface.
determines, to an extent, the features and capabilities of the
motherboard.

Modern motherboards include:

 Sockets (or slots) in which one or more microprocessors
may be installed. In the case of CPUs in ball grid array
packages, such as the VIA C3, the CPU is directly
soldered to the motherboard[4]
Memory slots into which the system's main memory is to be
installed, typically in the form of DIMM modules containing
DRAM chips can be DDR3, DDR4 or DDR5
A chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's
front-side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses
Non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern The motherboard of a Samsung
motherboards) containing the system's firmware or BIOS Galaxy SII; almost all functions of
A clock generator which produces the system clock signal the device are integrated into a very
to synchronize the various components small board
Slots for expansion cards (the interface to the system via
the buses supported by the chipset)
Power connectors, which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and
distribute it to the CPU, chipset, main memory, and expansion cards. As of 2007, some
graphics cards (e.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[5]
Connectors for hard drives, typically SATA and NVMe.

Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly used input devices,
such as USB for mouse devices and keyboards. Early personal computers such as the Apple II or IBM PC
included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Occasionally video interface hardware was
also integrated into the motherboard; for example, on the Apple II and rarely on IBM-compatible computers
such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as
expansion cards.

Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards
nearly always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat.

Form factor

Motherboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shape called computer form factor, some of which are
specific to individual computer manufacturers. However, the motherboards used in IBM-compatible systems
are designed to fit various case sizes. As of 2005, most desktop computer motherboards use the ATX standard
form factor — even those found in Macintosh and Sun computers, which have not been built from commodity
components. A case's motherboard and power supply unit (PSU) form factor must all match, though some
smaller form factor motherboards of the same family will fit larger cases. For example, an ATX case will
usually accommodate a microATX motherboard. Computers generally use highly integrated, miniaturized and
customized motherboards. 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

CPU sockets

A CPU socket (central processing unit) or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) and is designed to house a CPU (also called a microprocessor). It is a special type of integrated
circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including a physical
structure to support the CPU, support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement (as well as reducing cost), and
most importantly, forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB. CPU sockets on the
motherboard 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. A CPU socket type and motherboard
chipset must support the CPU series and speed.

Integrated 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.

Disk controllers for a floppy disk drive, PATA drives, and

SATA drives
integrated graphics controller supporting 2D and 3D
graphics, with VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and TV output
integrated sound card supporting 8-channel (7.1) audio
and S/PDIF output
Ethernet network controller for connection to a LAN and to
receive Internet
USB controller
IrDA controller for infrared data communication (e.g. with
an IrDA-enabled cellular phone or printer) Block diagram of a modern
Temperature, voltage, and fan-speed sensors that allow motherboard, which supports many
software to monitor the health of computer components. on-board peripheral functions as well
as several expansion slots

Peripheral card slots

A typical motherboard will have a different number of connections depending on its standard and form factor.

A standard, modern ATX motherboard will typically have two or three PCI-Express 16x connection for a
graphics card, one or two legacy PCI slots for various expansion cards, and one or two PCI-E 1x (which has
superseded PCI). A standard EATX motherboard will have two to four PCI-E 16x connection for graphics
cards, and a varying number of PCI and PCI-E 1x slots. It can sometimes also have a PCI-E 4x slot (will vary
between brands and models).

Some motherboards have two or more PCI-E 16x slots, to allow more than 2 monitors without special
hardware, or use a special graphics technology called SLI (for Nvidia) and Crossfire (for AMD). These allow
2 to 4 graphics cards to be linked together, to allow better performance in intensive graphical computing tasks,
such as gaming, video editing, etc.

Temperature and reliability

Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips in modern
motherboards.[6] Insufficient or improper cooling can cause damage to the internal components of the
computer, or cause it to crash. Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power supply, was sufficient for
many desktop computer CPU's until the late 1990s; since then, most have required CPU fans mounted on their
heat sinks, due to rising clock speeds and power consumption. Most
motherboards have connectors for additional computer fans and
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.[7] Alternatively
computers can use a water cooling system instead of many fans.

Some small form factor computers and home theater PCs designed for
quiet and energy-efficient operation boast fan-less designs. This
typically requires the use of a low-power CPU, as well as a careful
A motherboard of a Vaio E series
layout of the motherboard and other components to allow for heat
laptop (right)
sink placement.

A 2003 study 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.[8] Ultimately
this was shown to be the result of a faulty electrolyte formulation,[9]
an issue termed capacitor plague.

Standard motherboards use electrolytic capacitors to filter the DC

power distributed around the board. These capacitors age at a
temperature-dependent rate, as their water based electrolytes slowly
evaporate. This can lead to loss of capacitance and subsequent
motherboard malfunctions due to voltage instabilities. While most
capacitors are rated for 2000 hours of operation at 105 °C A microATX motherboard with some
faulty capacitors
(221 °F),[10] their expected design life roughly doubles for every
10 °C (18 °F) below this. At 65 °C (149 °F) a lifetime of 3 to 4 years
can be expected. However, many manufacturers deliver substandard
capacitors,[11] which significantly reduce life expectancy. Inadequate case cooling and elevated temperatures
around the CPU socket exacerbate this problem. With top blowers, the motherboard components can be kept
under 95 °C (203 °F), effectively doubling the motherboard lifetime.

Mid-range and high-end motherboards, on the other hand, use solid capacitors exclusively. For every 10 °C
less, their average lifespan is multiplied approximately by three, resulting in a 6-times higher lifetime
expectancy at 65 °C (149 °F).[12] These capacitors may be rated for 5000, 10000 or 12000 hours of operation
at 105 °C (221 °F), extending the projected lifetime in comparison with standard solid capacitors.

Bootstrapping using the Basic Input/Output System

Motherboards contain some non-volatile memory to initialize the system and load some startup software,
usually an operating system, from some external peripheral device. Microcomputers such as the Apple II and
IBM PC used ROM chips mounted in sockets on the motherboard. At power-up, the central processor unit
would load its program counter with the address of the boot ROM and start executing instructions from the
ROM. These instructions initialized and tested the system hardware displayed system information on the
screen, performed RAM checks, and then loaded an initial program from a peripheral device. If none was
available, then the computer would perform tasks from other memory stores or display an error message,
depending on the model and design of the computer and the ROM version. For example, both the Apple II
and the original IBM PC had Microsoft Cassette BASIC in ROM and would start that if no program could be
loaded from disk.
Most modern motherboard designs use a BIOS, stored in an EEPROM or Flash ROM chip soldered to or
socketed on the motherboard, to boot an operating system. Non-operating system boot programs are still
supported on modern IBM PC-descended machines, but nowadays it is assumed that the boot program will be
a complex operating system such as Microsoft Windows or Linux. When power is first supplied to the
motherboard, the BIOS firmware tests and configures memory, circuitry, and peripherals. This Power-On Self
Test (POST) may include testing some of the following things:

Video adapter
Cards inserted into slots, such as conventional PCI and PCI Express
Floppy drive
Temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds for hardware monitoring
CMOS memory used to store BIOS configuration
Keyboard and Mouse
Network controller
Optical drives: CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
SCSI hard drive
IDE, EIDE, or Serial ATA Hard disk drive
Security devices, such as a fingerprint reader or the state of a latching switch to detect intrusion
USB devices, such as a USB storage device

On recent motherboards, the BIOS may also patch the central processor microcode if the BIOS detects that the
installed CPU is one for which errata have been published.

Many motherboards now use a successor to BIOS called UEFI. It became popular after Microsoft began
requiring it for a system to be certified to run Windows 8.[13][14]

See also
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
PCI-X
PCI Express (PCIe)
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
M.2
Computer case screws
CMOS battery
Expansion card
List of computer hardware manufacturers
Memory Reference Code
Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)
Overclocking
Single-board computer
Switched-mode power supply applications
Symmetric multiprocessing

References
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External links
 "true"area&tid=wh11_008 Motherboard Form Factors (http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_c
ont.php?) - Silverstone Article
Motherboards (https://curlie.org/Computers/Hardware/Components/Motherboards) at Curlie
List of motherboard manufacturers and links to BIOS updates (http://www.wimsbios.com/biosup
dates.jsp)
What is a motherboard? (https://www.pcreview.co.uk/articles/what-is-a-motherboard.112/)
The Making of a Motherboard: ECS Factory Tour (https://web.archive.org/web/2007022612594
7/http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-335-1.htm)
The Making of a Motherboard: Gigabyte Factory Tour (https://web.archive.org/web/2009021800
0208/http://hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-217-1.htm)
Front Panel I/O Connectivity Design Guide (https://web.archive.org/web/20110511144045/htt
p://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/A2928604-005.pdf) - v1.3 (pdf file)

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