A 

motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board,[1] or 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 significant sub-systems, such as the central processor,
the chipset's input/output and memory controllers, interface connectors, and other components
integrated for general use.
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 daughterboards: sound cards, video cards, network cards, host bus
adapters, TV tuner cards, IEEE 1394 cards; and a variety of other custom components.

Dell Precision T3600 System Motherboard, used in professional CAD Workstations. Manufactured in 2012

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.

Motherboard for a personal desktop computer; showing the typical components and interfaces which are found
on a motherboard. This model follows the Baby AT (form factor), used in many desktop PCs.

Contents

 1History
 2Design
o 2.1Form factor
o 2.2CPU sockets
o 2.3Integrated peripherals
o 2.4Peripheral card slots
o 2.5Temperature and reliability
 3Bootstrapping using the Basic Input/Output System
 4See also
 5References
 6External links
History[edit]

Mainboard of a NeXTcube computer (1990) with microprocessor Motorola 68040 operated at 25 MHz and

a digital signal processor Motorola 56001 at 25 MHz, which was directly accessible via a connector on the back
of the casing.

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 1980s 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: PS/2 keyboard and mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. By the late
1990s, 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[edit]
The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993.[2] This board has few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the 6
slots provided for ISA cards and the lack of other built-in external interface connectors. Note the large AT
keyboard connector at the back right is its only peripheral interface.

The motherboard of a Samsung Galaxy SII; almost all functions of the device are integrated into a very small
board

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 plug-in
cards or via cables; in modern microcomputers, it is increasingly common to integrate some of these
peripherals into the motherboard itself.
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 motherboard.
Modern motherboards include:

 CPU sockets (or CPU slots) in which one or more microprocessors may be installed. In

the case of CPUs in ball grid array packages, such as the VIA Nano and the Goldmont
Plus, the CPU is directly soldered to the motherboard.[3]
 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
 The chipset which forms an interface between the CPU, main memory, and peripheral
buses
 Non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern motherboards) containing the
system's firmware or BIOS
 The clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various
components
 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[4]
 Connectors for hard disk drives, optical disc drives, or solid-state drives,
typically SATA and NVMe now[when?].