How Stuff Works/Motherboards

In the article “How Motherboards Work” motherboards were taken apart and described. The article explains how motherboards started (1st IBM motherboard had only a processor and card slots which users plugged floppy drive controller and memory into the slots) to how they are so advanced now, boasting a wide variety of built-in features and how they directly affect computer capabilities and potential upgrades. The following is a list of topics that were presented in the article. * Form Factors * Socket for the microprocessor * The Chipset * The Basic Input/Output System chip * The Real Time Chip Clock * Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) * Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) * Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) * Universal Serial Bus or FireWire * Memory slots * Redundant Array of Independent Discs (RAID) * PCI Express * Sockets (Pin Grid Array (PGA) & Land Grid Array (LGA) * Bus and bus speed * Memory and other features
The following is a list of terms (with their definitions) presented in the article. * Form Factors; They are the shape or layout of a motherboard. * Chipset; It is the “glue” that connects the processor to the rest of the motherboard. * Basic Input/Output System; B.I.O.S. Controls the basic functions of the computer. * Real Time Chip Clock; A battery operated chip that maintains basic settings & system time. * Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI); Connections for video, sound and video capture cards as well as network cards. * Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP); Dedicated port for video cards. * Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE); Interfaces for the hard drives. * Universal Serial Bus or FireWire; Are external peripherals. * Memory slots; Slots that hold memory. * Redundant Array of Independent Discs (RAID); Allows computer to recognize multiple drives as one. * PCI Express; Peripheral Component Interconnect; Eliminates the need for other ports, including the AGP port. * Sockets including the PGA (Pin Grid Array); connect the CPU to the motherboard. LGA (Land Grid Array); Pins are part of the socket not the CPU. * Bus; A circuit that connects one part of the motherboard to another. The more data that a bus can handle at one time, the faster it allows information to travel. Bus speed usually refers to the speed of the front side bus (FSB) which connects the CPU to the northbridge. * Memory slots; Directly affect what kind and how much memory is supported. Much of the memory available today is dual data rate (DDR) memory. This means that the memory can transmit data twice per cycle instead of once, which makes the memory faster.

I believe that motherboards are the nucleus of the computer, they tie everything together, they allow all parts of the computer to receive power and communication with each other. Without motherboards, the computer would not exist.