Practical no.

Aim: To study Motherboard

Submitted by: Sarang Jamwal

Submitted to: Minakshi Bhardwaj

Roll no: 20117

Branch: Computer Science

Engineering

Colledge: UIT Shimla (H.P)

Definition

A motherboard is the main printed circuit board 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 and memory, and provides connectors for other
peripherals.
What was the first motherboard?
The first motherboard is considered to be one used in the IBM Personal Computer, released in 1981.
At the time, IBM called it a "planar" instead of a motherboard. The IBM Personal Computer and the
motherboard inside it would set the standard for IBM-compatible computer hardware going forward.

Motherboard components

Expansion slots (PCI Express, PCI, and AGP)

3-pin case fan connectors
Back panel connectors
Heat sink
4-pin (P4) power connector
Inductor
Capacitor
CPU socket
Northbridge
Screw hole
Memory slot
Super I/O
ATA / IDE disk drive primary connection
24-pin ATX power supply connector
Serial ATA connections
Coin cell battery (CMOS backup battery)
RAID
System panel connectors
FWH
Southbridge
Serial port connector
USB headers
Jumpers
Integrated circuit
1394 headers
SPDIF
CD-IN
Motherboard form factors and types

As computers advanced, so have motherboards. Below is a list of the various motherboard form
factors and additional information about each, including ATX, which is the most common.
AT
ATX
Baby AT
BTX
DTX
LPX
Full AT
Full ATX
microATX
NLX
CONNECTORS ON THE MOTHERBOARD

Nearly all newer PCs have many internal and external interface connectors integrated into the
motherboard. Not all motherboards have all of the connectors discussed in this section, but most
Pentium-class motherboards have most of the connectors discussed. The connectors on the
motherboard can be classified into three groups: back panel connectors, mid board connectors, and
front panel connectors. Not all of these connectors support peripheral devices, either internal or
external. Some provide connections be- tween the motherboard and other internal devices, such as the
power supply, system speaker, and the front panel switches and LEDs.
Back Panel Connectors
Back panel of the motherboard contains several I/O con-sectors that can be used to connect peripheral
devices to the PC.
Onboard Connectors
Several connectors are located on the central part of the motherboard away from the edges that are
used by internal peripheral devices.The midboard connectors are divided into the following functional
groups:
▼ Audio/video This group of connectors is included on motherboards that have sound, video, and
CD-ROM support integrated into the motherboard. The connectors included in this group typically
include an auxiliary sound line in, a telephony connection, a legacy CD-ROM connector, and an
ATAPI
(AT Attachment Packet Interface) CD-ROM connection. .
■ Peripheral device interfaces Most newer motherboards and chipsets include support for some
peripheral devices to connect directly to the motherboard through connectors mounted on the
motherboard. These connections include the primary and secondary IDE connectors used for hard disk
and CD-ROM drives and the floppy disk controller. .
■ Hardware power and management The connectors in this group are used to attach the power
supply to the motherboard, to provide support for Wake on LAN or Wake on Ring technology, and to
connect system and processor fans to the system.
■ Memory slots While technically not a peripheral device connector, every .The motherboard
includes some form of connector, mounting, or slot for memory chips or modules. Newer boards have
slots for RIMMs (RDRAM inline memory modules) and DIMMs (dual inline memory modules).
Older Motherboards have slots for SIMMs (single inline memory modules) or DIP (dual inline
packaging) sockets.
▲ Expansion slots Every PC motherboard includes at least a few expansion slots that are used to add
peripheral device adapter and interface cards to the PC, motherboards support a variety of expansion
slot types, but ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect), and
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) are the most common.

EXTERNAL PORTS AND CONNECTORS

Although the basic set of external ports on a PC has settled into a sort of standard, it can
vary from PC to PC. The standard set includes a serial port or two, a parallel port or two, USB ports or
FireWire ports, a video port, a game device port, and speaker and micro- phone jacks.These interfaces
are each explained, right after some background information that will help you to understand how the
interfaces work.

Front Panel Connectors

The front panel of the system case can have a
variety of LEDs and switches that are attached to the motherboard for power or signals
that indicate various activities. Most motherboards include connectors for the hard disk (power and
activity), a main power on/off button, possibly a reset button, +5V DC power
connections, and grounding circuits. Most motherboards also have connections for the
system speaker (the one that sounds beeps and other tones, not the one used to play music).

The slots, ports, and connections on a motherboard may be color-coded to help identify the type of
slot, port, or connector. For example, with our motherboard picture, the IDE connectors are different
colors to help identify the primary and secondary connectors. When the memory slots are different
colors, it indicates the memory slots are dual-channel, and pairs of memory should be installed on the
same channel (color). For example, in our picture, the yellow memory slots are Channel A, and
Channel B are the black slots. If you were only installing two memory sticks, you'd want to install
both of them in Channel A (yellow slots) for optimal performance.

How does a motherboard connect to a computer case?

A computer motherboard connects to a desktop computer case using standouts. Once the motherboard
is attached to the case, all other devices connect to the motherboard itself or an expansion card.