TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES VISAYAS

Capt. Sabi St., City of Talisay, Negros Occidental

College of Engineering
Office of the Program Coordinator

LEARNING MODULE

COMP521: Computer
Systems 1

DEPARTMENT: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

COMPILED BY:

CHRISTOPHER S. FACIOLAN, ECE, MT, MECE

 2020

VISION

The Technological University of the Philippines shall be the premier state university
with recognized excellence in engineering and technology at par with leading universities in
the ASEAN region.

MISSION

The University shall provide higher and advanced vocational, technical, industrial,
technological and professional education and training in industries and technology, and in
practical arts leading to certificates, diplomas and degrees.
It shall provide progressive leadership in applied research, developmental studies in
technical, industrial, and technological fields and production using indigenous materials; effect
technology transfer in the countryside; and assist in the development of small-and-medium
scale industries in identified growth center. (Reference: P.D. No. 1518, Section 2)

QUALITY POLICY

The Technological University of the Philippines shall commit to provide quality higher
and advanced technological education; conduct relevant research and extension projects;
continually improve its value to customers through enhancement of personnel competence and
effective quality management system compliant to statutory and regulatory requirements; and
adhere to its core values.

CORE VALUES

T -Transparent and participatory governance

U -Unity in the pursuit of TUP mission, goals, and objectives
P -Professionalism in the discharge of quality service
I -Integrity and commitment to maintain the good name of the University
A -Accountability for individual and organizational quality performance
N -Nationalism through tangible contribution to the rapid economic growth of the
country
S - Shared responsibility, hard work, and resourcefulness in compliance to the
mandates
of the university

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

VISION ...................................................................................................................................... 1
MISSION ................................................................................................................................... 1
QUALITY POLICY .................................................................................................................. 1
CORE VALUES ........................................................................................................................ 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 2
COURSE DESCRIPTION ......................................................................................................... 3
COURSE OUTCOMES ............................................................................................................. 3
GRADING SYSTEM ................................................................................................................ 3
LEARNING GUIDE.................................................................................................................. 4
TOPICS .................................................................................................................................. 4
EXPECTED COMPETENCIES ............................................................................................ 4
TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT ...................................................................... 4
HISTORY OF INTEL PROCESSORS .............................................................................. 4
PROGRESS CHECK ........................................................................................................... 15
LEARNING GUIDE................................................................................................................ 16
TOPICS ................................................................................................................................ 16
EXPECTED COMPETENCIES .......................................................................................... 16
TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT .................................................................... 16
Levels of Details of a Computer System .......................................................................... 16
PROGRESS CHECK ........................................................................................................... 17
LEARNING GUIDE................................................................................................................ 18
TOPICS ................................................................................................................................ 18
EXPECTED COMPETENCIES .......................................................................................... 18
TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT .................................................................... 18
The Simplest Block Diagram of a Modern Computer System ......................................... 18
The Input/Output (I/O) Subsystem ................................................................................... 18
The Processor Subsystem ................................................................................................. 18
The Memory Subsystem ................................................................................................... 19
Components of a Computer System ................................................................................. 19
Peripherals ........................................................................................................................ 19
PROGRESS CHECK ........................................................................................................... 19

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LEARNING GUIDE................................................................................................................ 20
TOPICS ................................................................................................................................ 20
EXPECTED COMPETENCIES .......................................................................................... 20
TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT .................................................................... 20
THE MOTHERBOARD................................................................................................... 20
PROGRESS CHECK ........................................................................................................... 44
List of References................................................................................................................. 44

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The subject deals with the computer system hardware architecture design and operation.
Initially it focuses on the history of the IBM-Based PC. It then discusses the architecture of the
system and its interfaces for its operation.

COURSE OUTCOMES

1. Understand the architecture of an x86 and x64-based system.

2. Know the components and peripherals of a computer system.

3. Know how to assemble a personal computer.

GRADING SYSTEM

The student will be graded according to the following:

Average of examinations - 30%

Average of assessment - 70%

Midterm Grade : [(Midterm Exam x 0.30) + (Assessment x 0.70)]

End term Grade : [(Final Exam x 0.30) + (Assessment x 0.70)]

Final Grade : (Mid-Term Grade x 0.50 + (End Term Grade x 0.50)

The passing grade for this course is 5.0

LEARNING COMPETENCE RUBRIC

3
 CRITERIA / LEVEL 3 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 1
PERFORMANCE
8-10 5-7 0-4
Appropriate concepts
Appropriate concepts
that are fully Little or no
that are mostly
Concept understood, clearly understanding of the
understood but
stated and employed concepts
employed with errors.
correctly.
The approach chosen
Little or no
id appropriate, clearly Valid approach with
understanding of how
shown, and clearly errors that impede
Strategic Approach to approach the
stated and all elements understanding.
problem.
are valid.
The problem is solved
accurately in terms of The solution contains
Major error in solving
mathematical some minor math or
Solutions the problem.
manipulation and numerical errors
numerical calculation.

LEARNING GUIDE
Week No.: 1

TOPICS

 THE HISTORY OF THE INTEL-BASED MICROPROCESSOR

 THE TIMELINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN X86 / X64-BASED
SYSTEM

EXPECTED COMPETENCIES

Upon completing this Learning Guide, the student will be able to:
1. Know the history of the Intel-based microprocessors
2. Know the generation of IBM-Based PCs

TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT

HISTORY OF INTEL PROCESSORS

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The 4004 chips.

The 4004, manufactured from 1971 to 1981, was the first commercially available processor as
well as the first complete CPU on a single chip. The chip was packaged in a 16-pin ceramic
dual in-line package and was initially released with a clock speed of 108 KHz (and scaled up
to 740 KHz). Produced in a 10 μm (10,000 nm) process, the 4004 had 2,300 transistors and
delivered a performance of 0.07 MIPS.

The 8-bit 8008 replaced the 4004 in 1972 with 0.5 to 0.8 MHz clock speed and 3,500 transistors
and was primarily used in the TI 742 computer. The 8080 followed in 1974 with 4,500
transistors in 6,000 nm with up to 2 MHz and became famous for being used in the Altair 8800
as well as in Boeing's AGM-86 cruise missile.

None of these chips were sold in considerable volumes.

1978-1982: iAPX 86 – 8086, 8088 and 80186 (16-bit)

The 8086, also known as the iAPX 86, was Intel's first commercial 16-bit CPU and is
considered to be the chip that launched the era of x86 processors. With 29,000 transistors built
in a 3,000 nm design, the 8086 was clocked from 5 to 10 MHz and achieved up to 0.75 MIPS
in computers such as the IBM PS/2.

The IBM 5150, the first PC, came with the 8088 (5-8MHz), which was identical to the 8086
with the exception of its 8-bit internal bus. In 1982, Intel launched the 80186 CPU, which was
also based on the 8086, but was built in 2,000 nm and hit more than 1 MIPS at 6 MHz clock
speed. The Tandy 2000 was among the first PCs that used the 80186.

1981: iAPX 432

The iPAX 432 is one of the very few Intel processor designs that flopped and Intel does not
talk about anymore. Other future ill-fated processor designs included the i860/i960 in the early
1990s as well as the highly integrated Timna processor in 2000.

Introduced in 1981, the 432 was Intel's first 32-bit design – an amazingly complex design for
its time that integrated hardware-based multitasking and memory management features.
Designed for high-end systems, the downfall of the 4-8 MHz 432 was the fact that it was much
more expensive to produce and slower than the emerging 80286 design.

While the 432 was originally designed as a replacement for the 8086 series, the project was
ended in 1982.

1982: 80286

Intel's 80286 debuted with memory management and wide protection abilities and reached
clock speeds up to 25 MHz with a performance of more than 4 MIPS in 1991. This processor
was popular in IBM-PC AT and AT PC clones. The chip was manufactured in 1500 nm and
included 134,000 transistors.

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The 80286 is remembered as the Intel processor that provided the highest performance gain
over its predecessor and one of the most cost-efficient processors Intel ever produced. In 2007,
Intel stressed that only the new Atom processor was about as cost-efficient as the 80286 25
years earlier.

1985-1994: 386 and 376

The 32-bit era began with the release of the 386DX CPU in 1985. With 275,000 transistors
(1,500 nm) and clock speeds ranging from 16 to 33 MHz, the CPU hit up to 11.4 MIPS.

In 1988, Intel followed up with the 1,000 nm 386SX, which had a narrower 16-bit bus to target
mobile and low-cost desktop computing systems. Although the 386SX remained fully 32-bit
capable internally, the data bus was cut down to 16 bits to simplify circuit board layout and
reduce costs. Additionally, although not critical at the time, only 24 pins were connected to the
386SX's address bus, which effectively limited it to addressing 16MB of memory.

Both chips lacked a math coprocessor, and due to early problems with the i387 coprocessor not
being production-ready in time for the 80386, both chips had to fall back to the 80287 as their
math coprocessor until the 80387 was released to the market.

Intel's first notebook chip, the 386SL, arrived in 1990 as a highly integrated design with on-
chip cache, bus, and memory controller. The processor had 855,000 transistors and ran between
20 and 25 MHz. The 376 (1989) and 386EX (1994), both for embedded systems, completed
the 376/386 processor family. Despite it becoming obsolete as a personal computer CPU in the
early '90s, Intel continued to manufacture the 80386 family until September of 2007, due to
market demand for the chip to be used in embedded systems and the chip's wide use by the
aerospace industry.

1989: 486 and i860

The 486, designed under the guidance of Pat Gelsinger, today's CEO of VMware, drove Intel
through its greatest phase of growth. The 1,000 nm and 800 nm design were launched as 486DX
with 25 to 50 MHz, included 1.2 million transistors and delivered 41 MIPS. The low-end
486SX (a 486DX with disabled math co-processor) followed in 1991 with 16 to 33 MHz.

In 1992, Intel introduced an update as the 486DX2 (SX2) with up to 66 MHz, while the 486SL
as an enhanced 486SX was offered for notebooks (up to 33 MHz, 800 nm, 1.4 million
transistors). The final stage of the 486 series was the 486DX4 with up to 100 MHz, which was
marketed as an economical solution for those who did not want to spend more money on the
new Pentium systems. The DX4 was built in a 600 nm process, had 1.6 million transistors and
was rated at 70.7 MIPS.

1989 was also the release year of the i860, Intel's attempt to enter the RISC processor race and
the company's second major shot at the high-end computer segment. The i860 and i960 never
succeeded and were canceled in the early 1990s.

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1993: Pentium (P5, i586)

The original Pentium was introduced in 1993. In 2005, there were rumors that Intel would drop
the name in favor of the new Core brand, but the Pentium brand lives on. The brand is an
important part of Intel's history and departure from the 286/386/486 processor numbers; Intel
reportedly chose a word to be able to protect the trademark against AMD, which also offered
486-labeled processors.

The P5 Pentium launched with 60 MHz in 1993 and was available with up to 200 MHz (P54CS)
in 1996. The original 800 nm design had 3.1 million transistors but scaled to 3.3 million in the
350 nm 1996 design. The P55C was announced in 1997 with MMX (Multimedia Extensions)
and expanded the processor design to 4.5 million transistors and 233 MHz clock speed. The
mobile version of the Pentium MMX remained available until 1999 and reached 300 MHz.

1994-1999: Bumps in the road

Throughout the years, Intel has released many successful additions to its lineup of processors
and architectures, but not without running into the occasional bump in the road.

In 1994, a professor at Lynchburg College discovered a bug in the Intel P5 Pentium floating
point unit that affected several models of the original Pentium processor. The bug, known as
the Pentium FDIV bug, causes the processor to return incorrect decimal results in certain
division operations, which stood to cause issues in fields like mathematics and engineering,
where precise results were needed. Although rare, Byte Magazine estimated that about 1 in 9
billion divides would produce incorrect results. Intel attributed the flaw to missing entries in
the processor's lookup table used by floating point division circuitry.

In 1999, Intel released the Pentium III processor, which was the first x86 processor to feature
a unique ID number dubbed the PSN or Processor Serial Number. The PSN could be readily
accessed by software if not disabled by the user in the BIOS, through use of the CPUID
instruction. After its discovery, the PSN caused Intel to come under fire from a number of
groups, including the European Parliament, which cited privacy concerns over the ability of
PSN to be used by surveillance groups to identify individuals. Intel subsequently removed the
PSN feature from its future processors, including the Tualatin-based Pentium IIIs.

1995: Pentium Pro (P6, i686)

Upon its release, the Pentium Pro was a largely misunderstood processor. Many believed that
the Pro was intended to replace the P5. However, as a precursor to the Pentium II Xeon, the
Pentium Pro was tailored to deal with workloads typical for servers and workstations.

Other than what the name implies, the Pentium Pro's architecture was different from the regular
Pentiums and supported out of order execution, for example. In addition to the different
architecture, the Pentium Pro had a 36-bit address bus, which supported up to 64GB of
memory.

The Pentium Pro was built in 350 nm, had 5.5 million transistors, and came in several variants
with clock speeds ranging from 150 and 200 MHz. Its most famous application was the

7
integration in the ASCI Red supercomputer, which was first to break through the 1 TFLOPS
performance barrier.

1997: Pentium II and Pentium II Xeon

The Pentium II was a consumer-focused processor developed on top of the sixth generation P6
architecture, and the first Intel CPU that was delivered in a cartridge-like slot module and not
a socket device. The Pentium II had 2 million more transistors (7.5 million) than the P6,
significantly improving 16-bit execution, which was a problem in the initial P6 release, and
carried on the MMX instruction set that was introduced with the Pentium.

The Pentium II was released with the 350 nm Klamath core (233 and 266 MHz). Deschutes
arrived as a shrink to 250 nm and clock speeds up to 450 nm in 1998 and was also offered as
Pentium II Overdrive as an upgrade option for the Pentium Pro. Mobile Pentium II processors
got the 250 nm Tonga and 250 nm and 250nm/180 nm Dixon cores.

In the same year, Intel also offered the Deschutes core as a Pentium II Xeon with larger cache
and dual-processor support.

1998: Celeron

Intel's low-end consumer processor Celeron was launched in 1998 as a variant of the Pentium
II processor. While Celerons are based on the company's current processor technology, they
usually come with substantial downgrades, such as less cache memory, which positions them
as processors that are just "good enough" for the most basic PC applications and allows Intel
to compete at the very bottom of the PC market.

The first Celeron series was based on the 250 nm Covington core for desktops and the 250 nm
Mendocino core (19 million transistors, including L2 on-die cache) for notebooks. The
processors were available from 266 to 300 MHz on the desktop and up to 500 MHz on the
mobile side and were updated well into the days of the succeeding Pentium III. Today's
Celerons are based on Sandy Bridge architecture.

1999: Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon

The Pentium III was released in 1999 and was Intel's initial contender in the gigahertz race
with AMD as well as the CPU that countered the low-power challenge from Transmeta in early
2000. The chip was initially released with the 250 nm Katmai core and was quickly scaled
down to 180 nm with Coppermine, Coppermine T and to 130 nm with the Tualatin core.

The transistor count jumped from 9.5 million in Katmai to 28.1 million in the following cores
due to the integrated L2 cache. The initial clock speed was 450 MHz and eventually reached
1,400 MHz with Tualatin. Intel was criticized to have rushed out the first gigahertz versions to
compete with AMD's Athlon, which forced the company to recall its gigahertz processors and
re-release them at a later time.

Also noteworthy on the consumer side was the announcement of the Mobile Pentium III in
2000, which introduced SpeedStep and a scaling ability of clock speed of the processor,
depending on its operation mode. The Mobile Pentium III was announced one day before the

8
announcement of the Transmeta Crusoe processor, and many still believe tthat the Mobile
Pentium III would not have been released without the pressure of Transmeta, which was
famous for employing Linux inventor Linus Torvalds.

The Pentium III Xeon was the last Xeon processor tied to the Pentium brand. The chip was
released with the Tanner core in 1999. On the controversy side, Intel introduced the PSN, a
Processor Serial Number, with the Pentium III. The feature caused several privacy complaints,
and Intel eventually removed the feature and did not carry it over to future CPUs.

2000: Pentium 4

The Pentium 4 arguably took Intel on a path that led to the most dramatic transformation of
Intel in the company's history. Launched in 2000 with the 180 nm Willamette core (42 million
transistors), the chip's Netburst architecture was designed to scale with clock speed, and Intel
envisioned that the foundation would allow the company to hit frequencies of more than 20
GHz by 2010. Netburst, however, was more limited than initially thought, and by 2003, Intel
knew that the current leakage and power consumption was increasing with higher clock speeds
too fast.

Netburst launched with 1.3 and 1.4 GHz, increased to 2.2 GHz with the 130 nm Northwood
core (55 million transistors) in 2002, and to 3.8 GHz with the 90 nm Prescott core (125 million
transistors) in 2005. Intel also launched the first Extreme Edition processors with the Gallatin
core in 2003.

Over time, the Pentium 4 series became increasingly confusing, with Mobile Pentium 4-M
processors, Pentium 4E HT (hyperthreading) processors with support for a virtual second core,
and Pentium 4F processors with the 65 nm Cedar Mill core (Pentium 4 600 series) in 2005.
Intel planned to replace the Pentium 4 family with the Tejas processor but canceled the project
when it was clear that Netburst would not be able to reach clock speeds beyond 3.8 GHz. Core,
the following architecture, was a dramatic turnaround to much more efficient CPUs with a
strict power ceiling that put Intel's gigahertz machine in reverse.

2001: Xeon

The first Xeon that did not bring the Pentium brand along was based on Pentium 4's Netburst
architecture and debuted with the 180 nm Foster core. It was available with 1.4 to 2.0 GHz
clock speeds. The Netburst architecture continued until 2006, when Intel had expanded Xeon
to a full line of UP and MP processors with the 90 nm Nocona, Irwindale, Cranford, Potomac
and Paxville cores and the 65 nm Dempsey and Tulsa cores.

Similar to its desktop processors, the Netburst processors suffered from excessive power
consumption, which forced Intel to revise its processor architecture and strategy. The Netburst
Xeons died with the dual-core Dempsey CPU with a clock speed of up to 3.73 GHz and 376
million transistors.

Today's Xeons are still based on the technology foundation that is also used for desktop and
mobile processors, but Intel keeps them in a tight power envelope. The 2006 dual-core
Woodcrest chip, a variant of the desktop Conroe chip, was the first representative of this new
idea. The current Xeons are based on 32 nm Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge EP architecture,

9
and Westmere processor designs. The CPUs have up to 10 cores and clock speeds up to 3.46
GHz, as well as up to 2.6 billion transistors.

2001: Itanium

The Itanium has been Intel's most misunderstood processor that actually survived over a long
period of time. While it follows the idea of the i860 and iAPX 432, it has found some powerful
supporters and not been cut yet. The processor was launched as Intel's first 64-bit processor
and was believed to be Intel's general idea for a 64-bit platform. However, the Itanium suffered
in the 32-bit department and was heavily criticized for its lack of performance in this segment.

Itanium was launched with the 180 nm Merced core in 2001 as a mainframe processor with
733 MHz and 800 MHz clock speed and 320 million transistors – more than six times the count
of a desktop Pentium at the time. The Itanium 2 followed in 2002 (180 nm McKinley core, as
well as 130 nm Madison, Deerfield, Hondo, Fanwood and Madison cores) and wasn't updated
until 2010 when Intel launched the Itanium 9000 with the 90 nm Montecito and Montvale
cores, as well as the 65 nm Tukwila core with a massive 24 MB on-die cache, as well as more
than 2 billion transistors.

Despite persistent rumors that Intel will kill the Itanium at any time, there is a solid service
ecosystem surrounding the processor.

2002: Hyper-Threading

In 2002, Intel released the first modern desktop processor with Simultaneous Multithreading
Technology (SMT), known as Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. HT Technology first
appeared in Intel's Prestonia-based Xeon processors and later in the Northwood-based Pentium
4 processors.

Hyperthreading works by duplicating certain sections of the processor, allowing the operating
system to address a single physical processor with two logical processors per core. The
operating system is then able to execute two threads simultaneously by allowing one thread to
run while the other is stalled, usually due to a data dependency.

At the time, Intel claimed a performance improvement of up to 30 percent over a non-

hyperthreaded Pentium 4. The previous tests, have shown that a hyperthreaded 3 GHz chip can
surpass the speed of a non-hyperthreaded 3.6 GHz chip under certain conditions. Intel has
continued to include hyperthreading as a feature in various processors, including the Itanium,
Pentium D, Atom and Core i-Series CPUs.

2003: Pentium M

The Pentium M 700 series, launched with the 130 nm Banias core in 2003, was targeted at
mobile computers but carried the philosophy of an Intel that did not focus its processors on
clock speed anymore, but on power efficiency. The processor was developed by Intel's design

10
team in Israel, which was led by Mooly Eden and David Perlmutter, who both hold key
executive roles at Intel today.

Banias dropped its clock speed to 900 MHz to 1.7 GHz, down from 2.6 GHz of the Pentium 4
Mobile. However, the processor was rated at just 24.5 watts TDP, while the Pentium 4 chip
was at 88 watts. The 90 nm shrink was called Dothan and dropped its thermal design power to
21 watts. Dothan had 140 million transistors and clock speeds of up to 2.13 GHz.

The direct successor of Dothan was Yonah, which was released in 2006 as Core Duo and Core
Solo, but was not related to the Intel Core micro-architecture. The Banias core and its impact
on Intel is seen on the same level as the 4004, 8086 and 386 as the most significant milestones
in the company's product history.

2005: Pentium D

The Pentium D was Intel's first dual-core processor. Still based on Netburst, the first version
had the 90 nm Smithfield core (two Northwood cores) and was released as the Pentium D 800
series. It was succeeded by the 65 nm Presler (with two Cedar Mill cores) dual-core.

Intel also released Extreme Editions of both processors and capped the maximum clock speed
at 3.73 MHz and at a power consumption of 130 watts – the highest ever for any Intel consumer
desktop processor (some server processors went up to 170 watts). Smithfield had 230 million
transistors, Prescott 376 million.

2005-2009: Terascale Computing Research Program

Intel's Terascale Computing Research Program (TSCR) started sometime around 2005 as a
means to address the various challenges faced in scaling chips beyond four cores and to
experiment with improving communication within the processors themselves. The TSCR
program has yielded several notable devices, including the Teraflops Research Chip and the
Single-Chip Cloud Computer, both of which became significant contributors to Intel's Xeon
Phi line of coprocessors.

The Teraflops Research Chip, codenamed Polaris, is an 80-core processor developed through
the TSCR program. The chip features dual floating-point engines, sleeping-core technology
and 3D memory stacking among other things. The purpose of the chip was to experiment on
how to effectively scale beyond four cores on a single die and to build a chip that was capable
of producing a teraflop of computing performance.
The Single Chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is a 48-core processor developed through the TSCR
program. The idea behind the SCC chip was to have a chip in which several sets of separate
cores were able to communicate directly with each other, similar to the way servers in a data
center communicate. The chip contains 48 Pentium cores in a 4 x 6 two-dimensional mesh of
24 tiles sharing two cores and 16KB of cache each. The tiles allow the cores to communicate
with each other instead of sending and retrieving data from the main memory, which greatly
improves performance.

2006: Core 2 Duo

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Core 2 Duo was Intel's strike back against AMD's Athlon X2 and Opteron processors, which
were highly successful at the time. The Core micro-architecture was launched with the 65 nm
Conroe (Core 2 Duo E-6000 series) on the desktop, Merom on the mobile side (Core 2 Duo
T7000 series), and Woodcrest in the server market (Xeon 5100 series). Intel quickly followed
with quad-core versions (Kentsfield Core 2 Quad series for the desktop, Clovertown Xeon 5300
series for servers).

The Core micro-architecture was preceded by one of the most significant restructurings at Intel,
as well as a substantial repositioning of the company. While Conroe was developed, Intel
positioned its remaining Pentium and Pentium D processors to drive AMD into an
unprecedented price war in 2005 and 2006, while the Core 2 Duo processor regained the
performance lead over AMD in 2006. Conroe was launched with 1.2 GHz to 3 GHz clock
speeds and as a chip with 291 million transistors. The CPUs were updated with a 45 nm Penryn
shrink in 2008 (Yorkfield for quad-cores).

While Intel always attempted to deliver a die shrink every two years, the arrival of Core 2 Duo
also marked the introduction of the company's tick-tock cadence, which dictates a shrink in
uneven years and a new architecture in even years.

2007: Intel vPro

Around 2007, Intel introduced its vPro technology, which isn't much more than a marketing
term for a suite of hardware-based technologies included on select Intel processors produced
since then. Mainly targeted at the enterprise market, vPro, which is often confused with Intel's
Active Management Technology (AMT), encompasses Intel technologies such as Hyper-
Threading, AMT, Turbo Boost 2.0 and VT-x in a single package. In order for a computer to
utilize vPro technology, it must have a vPro-enabled processor, a vPro-enabled chipset and a
BIOS that also supports vPro technology.

Major technologies included in vPro:

Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) – A set of hardware features that allow systems
administrators to remotely access and manage a computer even when the computer is powered
off. Remote configuration technology for AMT allows basic configuration to be performed on
systems that do not yet have an operating system or other management tools installed.

• Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) – Verifies the authenticity of a computer using
the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). TXT then builds a chain of trust using various
measurements from the TPM, which are then used to make trust-based decisions about what
software is able to run and allows systems administrators to ensure sensitive data is only
processed on a trusted platform.

• Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) – A hardware-based virtualization technology that

allows multiple workloads to share a common set of resources in full isolation. Additionally,
VT removes some of the performance overhead incurred by solely using software
virtualization.

2008: Core i-Series

Intel's Core-i3, i5 and i7 processors launched with the Nehalem micro-architecture and the
company's 45 nm production process in 2008. The architecture was scaled to 32 nm (Westmere)

12
in 2010 and provided the foundation for Intel processors covering the Celeron, Pentium Core
and Xeon brands. Westmere scaled to up to eight cores, up to 3.33 GHz clock speed and up to
2.3 billion transistors.

Westmere was effectively replaced by the 32 nm Sandy Bridge architecture in 2011, which
shrunk in 2012 to 22 nm in the Ivy Bridge generation (1.4 billion transistors for quad-core
processors).

2008: Atom

Atom was launched in 2008 as a processor designed to power mobile internet devices as well
as nettops. The initial 45 nm single chip was sold in a package with a chipset and a thermal
design power as low as 0.65 watts. As netbooks became quickly popular in 2008, the less power
efficient Diamondville (N200 and N300 series) core sold in far greater units than the
Silverthorne core (Z500 series), which Intel envisioned to be its contender for the ultramobile
market.

The initial Atom lacked integration and did not succeed in markets other than netbooks. Even
the updated Lincroft (released in 2010 as Z600) could not change that scenario. The current
Atom generation for desktop and netbook applications is the 32 nm Cedarview generation
(D2000 and N2000 series, released in 2011). Intel attempted to expand Atom into other
application areas, such as TVs, but failed largely due to the lack of integration of Atom.

Atom SoC was released in 2012 with the Medfield core: The Z2000 series is Intel's first
offering for devices such as phones and tablets since its ARMv5-based Xscale core, which the
company offered between 2002 and 2005.

2010: HD Graphics

In 2010, Intel introduced its Westmere architecture featuring on-die graphics, known as Intel
HD Graphics. Previously, any computer not utilizing a discrete graphics card made use of the
Intel Integrated Graphics residing on the motherboard's Northbridge chip.

With Intel's continued move from its Hub Architecture design to the new Platform Controller
Hub (PCH) design, the Northbridge chip was eliminated entirely, and the integrated graphics
hardware was moved to the same die as the CPU. Unlike the previous integrated graphics
solution, which had a poor reputation of lacking performance and features, Intel's HD Graphics
once again made integrated graphics competitive with discrete graphics manufacturers through
major performance increases and low power consumption. Intel HD Graphics came to
dominate the low-to-midrange device market, picking up an even more substantial share in the
mobile device sector. The Intel HD Graphics 5000 (GT3) has a TDP of 15 watts, 40 execution
units and a performance output of up to 704 GFLOPS.

In 2013, Intel launched its Iris Graphics and Iris Pro Graphics on limited set of its Haswell
processors, as a high-performance version of HD Graphics. The Iris Graphics 5100 is largely
the same as the HD Graphics 5000 but features an increased TDP of 28 watts, an increased
maximum frequency of 1.3 GHz and a small increase in performance of up to 832 GFLOPS.
The Iris Pro Graphics 5200, referenced as Crystalwell by Intel, is the first of Intel's integrated
solutions to have its own embedded DRAM, featuring a 128MB cache for performance

13
improvements in bandwidth-limited tasks. In late 2013, Intel announced that the Broadwell-K
series of processors will feature Iris Pro Graphics in place of HD Graphics.

2010: Many Integrated Core Architecture and Xeon Phi

Initial work on Intel's Many Integrated Core Architecture (MIC) began around 2010, drawing
on technology from several earlier projects, such as the Larrabee micro-architecture, the Single
Chip Cloud Computer project, and the Teraflops Research Chip. Intel's various MIC products,
which would later come to be known as Xeon Phi, are coprocessors, which are specialized
processors designed to increase computing performance by offloading processor-intensive
tasks from the CPU.

In May of 2010, Intel debuted its first MIC prototype board, codenamed Knights Ferry, which
was a PCIe card sporting 32 cores at 1.2 GHz and four threads per core. The development board
also featured 2GB of GDDR5 memory, 8MB of L2 cache, power consumption of around 300
watts and performance exceeding 750 GFLOPS.

In 2011, Intel announced an improvement to its MIC architecture, codenamed Knights Corner,
which was made using the 22 nm process with Intel's Tri-gate transistor technology and had
over 50 cores per chip. Knights Corner was Intel's first commercial MIC product and quickly
gained adoption from many companies in the supercomputer industry, including SGI, Texas
Instruments and Cray. Knights Corner was officially rebranded as Xeon Phi by Intel in 2012 at
the Hamburg International Supercomputing Conference.

Intel revealed its second-generation MIC architecture, dubbed Knights Landing, in June of
2013. Intel announced that the Knights Landing products would be built with up to 72 Airmont
cores with four threads per core using the 14 nm process. Additionally, Intel stated that each
card would support up to 384GB of DDR4 RAM, include 8-16GB of 3D MCDRAM, and have
TDPs ranging from 160 to 215 watts.

Current Xeon Phi products include the Xeon Phi 3100, Xeon Phi 5110P and the Xeon Phi
7120P, all based on the 22nm process. The Xeon Phi 3100 is capable of more than 1 teraflops
of double-precision floating point performance, with memory bandwidth of 320GBps and a
recommended price tag of under $2,000. At the high end of the spectrum, the Xeon Phi 7120P
is capable of more than 1.2 teraflops of double-precision floating point performance, 352GBps
memory bandwidth and a price tag north of $4,100.

2012: Intel SoCs

Intel's venture into the System on a Chip (SoC) market began around mid-2012 when the
company launched its line of Atom SoCs, the earliest of which were merely a lower-power
adaptation of earlier Atom processors, which didn't see much success against ARM-based
SoCs. Intel SoCs began to take off in late 2013 with the release of the Baytrail Atom SoCs
based on the 22 nm Silvermont architecture.

Like the newly released Avoton chips for servers, the Baytrail chips are true SoCs, with all the
components necessary for tablets and laptop computers, and feature TDPs as low as 4 watts. In
addition to the Atom-based SoCs, around early 2014, Intel began a serious push to bring its
more popular desktop architectures into the high-end tablet market by introducing the Haswell
architecture 'Y' SKU suffix ultralow-power processors with TDPs around 10 watts.

14
In late 2014, Intel started releasing chips based on the Broadwell architecture, further extending
Intel's venture into the SoC market with quad-core chips featuring TDPs as low as 3.5 watts
and support for up to 8GB of LPDDR3-1600 RAM.

2013: Core i-Series – Haswell

Intel updated its Core i-Series of processors in 2013 with the debut of the 22 nm Haswell micro-
architecture, which replaced the 2011 Sandy Bridge architecture.

With the introduction of Haswell, Intel also introduced the 'Y' SKU suffix for its new low-
power processors designed for ultrabooks and high-end tablets (10-15-watt TDP). Haswell
scaled up to 18 cores with the Haswell-EP line of Xeon processors, up to 5.69 billion transistors
and clock speeds of up to 4.4 GHz.

In 2014, Intel released a refresh of the Haswell lineup called Devil's Canyon, which features a
modest boost in clock speeds and an improved thermal interface material to alleviate heat issues
faced by enthusiasts and overclockers. The Broadwell die shrink in 2014 scaled down the
architecture to 14 nm, but did not replace the full line of Haswell CPUs, instead forgoing the
inclusion of low-end desktop CPUs.

PROGRESS CHECK

Assignment 1. a) Give the list of generations of Core-i Series of Processors (i3, i5, i7). b)
Discuss the Intel naming convention.

15
 LEARNING GUIDE
Week No.: 2

TOPICS

 THE LEVELS OF DETAILS OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM

 THE HARDWARE LEVEL
 THE SOFTWARE LEVEL
o COMMAND INTERPRETERS
o PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

EXPECTED COMPETENCIES

Upon completing this Learning Guide, the student will be able to:
1. Understand the levels of details of a computer system
2. Understand and differences between the hardware, firmware and
software and its functionality.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT

Levels of Details of a Computer System

USER

Programming Language Command Interpreters

High-Level Operating System Software

Assembly File
System
Machine

Architecture

Hardware Implementation

Hardware Realization

The figure shows the hierarchy of the levels of detail. The user is on top of everything followed
by the software, considered to be the manager of the system and below it is the hardware, the
one that performs all the logical computations.

16
The Software

The software is divided into two (2) main parts namely:

1. Programming languages – Used to develop applications and programs for

computations of the hardware. The programming languages classifications are:
a. High-level – uses English language for its instructions and commands.
Theses languages needs a compiler for the hardware to understand the
program.
b. Assembly – uses mnemonics as its instructions and commands. Needs an
assembler for the hardware to understand.
c. Machine – the most primitive of all languages. Only the hardware
understands this language.
2. Command Interpreters – interprets the commands given by the user. The command
interpreter is composed of the operating system (OS) and the file system.
a. Operating System – manages the operation of the computer. It determines
and prioritizes interrupts. It accepts the user’s input command and interprets
it for the hardware to process.
b. File System – The file system set the specifications for the data stored in the
secondary storage devices. The specifications include the length of data in
bits, parity, and flags.

The hardware is of three (3) levels. They are the following:

1. Architecture – the abstract functionality of the system. It states what the system can
do. It identifies the possible inputs, the processes it performs and the possible
output.
2. Implementation – it is the block diagram of the system showing the blocks and
possible subsystems required to perform the identified abstract functionality of the
computer. The implementation shows the possible flow of data from a single or
multiple input to a possible multiple output.
3. Hardware Realization – it is the actual assembly of the computer system. The
hardware interfaced to perform the required processes and output.

PROGRESS CHECK

Assignment 2. A) Give at least five (3) command interpreters with a brief description and a
list of its features. B) Give and discuss the main classifications of computer systems.

17
 LEARNING GUIDE
Week No.: 3

TOPICS

 THE BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A MODERN COMPUTER SYSTEM

 THE COMPUTER COMPONENTS AND PERIPHERALS

EXPECTED COMPETENCIES

Upon completing this Learning Guide, the student will be able to:
3. Understand the Block Diagram of a Modern Computer System in its
simplest form
4. Identify the components and peripherals

TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT

The Simplest Block Diagram of a Modern Computer System

I/O Bus
I/O Processor
Subsystem Subsystem

Memory
Bus

DMA
Memory
Subsystem

The Input/Output (I/O) Subsystem

Input and output (I/O) subsystem allow the user to communicate with the computer system.
Input devices such as keyboards, mice, card readers, scanners, voice recognition systems, and
touch screens is interfaced with the I/O subsystem and enable the user to enter data into the
computer. Output devices connected with the subsystem such as monitors, printers, plotters,
and speakers allow the user to get information from the computer.

The Processor Subsystem

18
The processor subsystem is also called the Central Processing Unit (CPU). It processes all the
transactions in the computer system. It is the main block that links the I/O to the main
memory.

The Memory Subsystem

The main memory is considered as the workhorse of the computer system. All data processed
by the CPU is stored in the main memory prior moving it out of the computer. The memory
subsystem is also called the primary storage of the computer.

Components of a Computer System

The component of a computer system is a basic part that supports the main functionality of
the system. A component is a required element of the system. The following are considered
as component of the computer system:

1. Motherboard
2. Processor
3. Primary Storage – Memory
4. Secondary Storage – HDD/SSD

Peripherals

These are devices used to extend the functionality of the computer system. Peripherals are
considered optional parts of the computer system. The following are examples of the
computer peripherals:

1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Speakers
4. Scanners
5. Printers
6. Digital Cameras/Web cameras
7. LED/LCD/CRT Monitors

PROGRESS CHECK

Assignment 3. Give at least five (5) items interfaced in each of the identified subsystems of
the modern computer system. Give a description of the item and a drawing/picture.

19
 LEARNING GUIDE
Week No.: 4

TOPICS

 THE ANATOMY OF A MOTHERBOARD

 COMPATABILITY OF COMPONENTS AND PERIPHERALS

EXPECTED COMPETENCIES

Upon completing this Learning Guide, the student will be able to:
5. Understand the anatomy of a motherboard
6. Know the interfaces of the motherboard

TECHNICAL INFORMATION / CONTENT

THE MOTHERBOARD

The main role of a motherboard, in essence, it serves two purposes:

 Provide electrical power to the individual components

 Provide a route to allow the components to communicate with each other

There are other things a motherboard does (e.g. holds the components in place, or provides
feedback as to how well everything is functioning) but the aforementioned aspects are critical
to how a PC operates, that almost every other part that makes up the motherboard, is related
to these two things.

Nearly every motherboard used in a standard desktop PC today will have sockets for
the central processing unit (CPU), memory modules (nearly always a type of DRAM), add-in
expansion cards (such a graphics card), storage, input/ouputs, and a means
to communicate with other computers and systems.

20
Standard motherboards initially differ in terms of their size, and there are industry-wide
standards that manufacturers tend to adhere to (and plenty of others that do not). The main sizes
you are likely to come across are:
 Standard ATX - 12 × 9.6 inches (305 × 244 mm)

 Micro ATX - 9.6 × 9.6 inches (244 × 244 mm)

 Mini ATX - 5.9 × 5.9 inches (150 × 150 mm)

You can see a far more comprehensive list on Wikipedia, but we will just stick to standard
ATX for simplicity, because the differences generally lie in the number of sockets available to
be powered and connected; a bigger motherboard permits more sockets.

What exactly is a motherboard?

A motherboard is simply a big electronic printed circuit board, with lots of connectors to plug
things into and hundreds, if not thousands, of feet of electrical traces that run between the
various sockets. Theoretically, the board is not needed: you could connect everything together
by using a huge mass of wires. The performance would be terrible, though, as the signals would
interfere with one another, and there would be notable power losses by using this method, too.

We'll begin our breakdown by using a typical ATX motherboard. The image below corresponds
to an Asus Z97-Pro Gamer and its appearance, features, and functions can be found in dozens
more like it.

21
The only problem with the picture is that there are a lot of visible components, making it trickier
to spot everything clearly.
Let us strip it all away and look at a simplified diagram to begin with (below).

22
That is better, but there is still a lot of sockets and connectors to talk about! Let us start near
the top, with the most important one of all.

Wiring up the brains of a PC

The diagram has a structure labelled LGA1150. This is the name used by Intel to describe the
socket used to hold many of their CPUs. The letters, LGA, stand for Land Grid Array, a common
type of packaging technology for CPUs and other integrated circuits.
LGA systems have lots of little pins in the motherboard, or in a socket on the board, to provide
power and communications to the processor. You can see them in the picture below:

23
The metal bracket holds the CPU in place, but it is getting in the way of seeing the pins
clearly, so let's move it to one side.

24
Remember the name for this? LGA1150. The number is for how many pins there are in this
socket. We will explore the connections for a CPU in another article, but for now we will just
point out that motherboards for other CPUs will have more or fewer pins.
In general, the more capable the CPU (in terms of number of cores, amount of cache, etc), the
more pins will be found in the socket. Many these connections will be used to send and receive
data to the next important feature on a motherboard.

Big brains need big memory

The sockets or slots that are always the closest to the CPU are those that hold DRAM modules,
aka system memory. These are connected directly to the CPU and nothing else on the
motherboard. The number of DRAM slots depend mostly on the CPU, as the controller for the
memory is built into the central processor.
In the example we are looking at, the CPU that fits into this motherboard has 2 memory
controllers, with each one handling 2 sticks of memory - hence there are 4 sockets in total. You
can see that, on this motherboard, the memory sockets are colored in way to let you know
which ones are managed by which controller. They are commonly called memory channels, so
channel #1 handles two of the slots and channel #2 handles the other two.

25
For this motherboard, the colors of the slots can be a little confusing (and it certainly confused
this author!): the two black slots are one each for the two memory controllers (and same for
the grey ones). So, the black slot closest to the CPU socket is channel #1, and the next black
one is channel #2.
It is colored like this to encourage you use the motherboard in what is called dual memory
channel mode - by using both controllers at the same time, the overall performance of the
memory system is increased. So, let us say you had two RAM modules, each one 8 GB in size.
No matter what slots you put them in, you will always have a total of 16 GB of available
memory.
However, if you put both modules into both black slots (or both grey slots), the CPU will
essentially have double the routes possible to access that memory. Do it the other way (one
module in each color) and the system will be forced to access the memory with just the one
memory controller. Given that it can only manage one route at a time, it is not hard to see how
this does not help performance.
This CPU/motherboard combination uses DDR3 SDRAM (double data rate version 3,
synchronous dynamic random-access memory) chips and each socket holds one SIMM or
DIMM. The 'IMM' part stands for Inline Memory Module; the S and D refers to where the
module has one side filled with chips or both sides (single or dual).
Along the bottom edge of the memory module are lots of gold-plated connectors, and this type
of memory has 240 of them in total (120 each side). These provide the power and data signals
for the chips.

A single DIMM of DDR3 SDRAM. Image: Crucial

26
Bigger modules would allow you to have more memory, but the whole setup is limited by the
pins on the CPU (almost half of the 1150 pins in this example are dedicated to handle these
memory chips) and space for all the traces or electrical wires in the motherboard.
The computer industry has stuck with using 240 pins on memory modules since 2004 and
shows no signs of changing any time soon. To improve memory performance, the chips simply
run faster with each new version released. In the example we are looking at, the CPU's memory
controllers can each send and receive 64 bits of data per clock cycle. So, with two controllers,
the memory sticks will be having 128 pins dedicated to transferring information. So why 240
pins?
Each memory chip on the DIMM (16 in total, 8 per side) can transfer 8 bits per clock cycle.
That means each chip needs 8 pins, just for data transfers; however, two chips share the same
data pins, so only 64 of the 240 are data ones. The remaining 176 pins are required for timing
and reference purposes, transmitting the addresses of the data (location of where the data is on
the module), controlling the chips, and providing electrical power.
So, you can see that having more than 240 pins will not necessarily make things better!

RAM is not the only thing that's hooked up to the CPU

System memory is connected directly to the central processor to boost performance, but there
are other sockets on the motherboard that are wired a bit like this (and for the same reason).
They use a connection technology called PCI Express (PCIe, for short) and every modern CPU
has a PCIe controller built into it.
These controllers can handle multiple connections (typically referred to as lanes), even though
it is a 'point-to-point' system, meaning that the lanes in the socket are not shared with any other
device. In our example, the CPU's PCI Express controller has 16 lanes.
The image below shows 3 sockets: the top two are PCI Express, while the bottom one is a much
older system called PCI (related to PCIe, but a lot slower). The little one at the top is labelled
PCIEX1_1 because it is a single lane socket; the one below it is a 16-lane socket.

If you scroll back up and look at the whole motherboard again, you can see that there are:
 2x PCI Express 1 lane sockets

 3x PCI Express 16 lane sockets

 2x PCI sockets

27
But if the CPU's controller only has 16 lanes, what is going on? First, only PCIEX16_1 and
PCIEX16_2 is connected to the CPU - the third one, and the two single lane sockets are
connected to another processor on the motherboard (more about that in a moment). Secondly,
if both sockets were filled with devices that use 16 PCIe lanes, then the CPU will only dedicate
8 lanes to each.
This is the case of all CPUs today; they have a limited number of lanes, so as more devices get
connected to the CPU, each one gets a smaller number of lanes to work with.
Different CPU and motherboard configurations have their own way of handling of this. For
example, Gigabyte's B450M Gaming motherboard has one PCIe 16 lane socket, one PCIe 4
lane socket and a M.2 socket that uses 4 PCIe lanes. With only 16 lanes available from the
CPU, using any two sockets will force the larger x16 one to be capped to 8 lanes.
So, what kind of things use those sockets? The most common choices are:
 16 lanes = graphics card

 4 lanes = solid state drives (SSD storage)

 1 lane = sound cards, network adapters

You can see the difference between the connectors in the image above. The graphics card sports
the longer 16 lane one, compared to the sound card's little 1-lane setup. The latter has far less
data to transfer than the former, so it does not need all those extra lanes.
In our motherboard example, like all others, has lots more sockets and connections to manage,
and so the CPU gets a helping hand from another processor.

Let us head south and cross the bridge

If we go back 15 years or so, and look at motherboards from that era, there were two additional
chips built into them to support the CPU. Together, they were called a chip set (usually
concatenated to chipset), and individually they were called the Northbridge (NB)
and Southbridge (SB) chips.
The former handled the system memory and graphics card, the latter processed the data and
instructions for everything else.

28
The above image, of an ASRock 939SLI32 motherboard, clearly shows the NB/SB chips - they
are both hidden under aluminum heatsinks, but the one closest to the CPU socket in the middle
of the image is the Northbridge. A few years after this product was around, both Intel and AMD
released CPUs that had the NB integrated into the central processor.
The Southbridge, though, has remained separate and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future.
Interestingly, both CPU manufacturers have stopped calling it the SB and often refer to it as
the chipset (Intel's proper name for it is the PCH, platform controller hub), even though it is just
a single chip!
On our more modern example from Asus, the SB is also covered with a heatsink, so let us pop
it off and have a look at the extra processor.

29
This chip is an advanced controller, handling multiple types and numbers of connections.
Specifically, it's an Intel Z97 chipset and offers the following features:
 8 PCI Express lanes (version 2.0 PCIe)

 14 USB ports (6 for version 3.0, 8 for version 2.0)

 6 Serial ATA ports (version 3.0 SATA)
It also has an integrated network adapter, an integrated sound chip, a VGA display output, and
a whole host of other timing and controlling systems. Other motherboards will have more
basic/advanced chipsets (providing more PCIe lanes, for example) but in general, most chipsets
offer the same kind of features.
For this motherboard, this is the processor that handles the single lane PCIe slots, the third 16
lane slot, and the M.2 slot. Like many newer chipsets, it handles all these different connections
by using a set of high-speed ports that can be switched to PCI Express, USB, SATA, or
networking, depending on what is connected at the time. This, unfortunately, places a limit on
how many devices plugged into the motherboard, despite all those sockets.

30
In the case of our Asus motherboard, the SATA ports (used to attach hard drives, DVD burners,
etc) are grouped as shown above because of this limitation. The block of 4 ports in the middle
use the chipset's standard USB connections, whereas the two on the left use some of these high-
speed connections.
So, if you use the ones on the left, then the chipset will have fewer connections for other
sockets. The same is true for the USB 3.0 ports. There is support for up to 6 devices, but 2 of
these ports will also eat into the high-speed connections.

The M.2 socket, used to connect SSD storage, uses the fast system, too (along with the third
16 lane PCI Express slot on this motherboard); however, on some CPU/motherboard
combinations, the M.2 sockets connect directly to the CPU, as many newer products have more
than 16 PCIe lanes to distribute and use.
Along the left-hand side of our motherboard, there is a row of connectors generally called the
I/O set (input/output) and in this instance, the Southbridge chip (or chipset) only handles a few
of them:
 PS/2 connector - for keyboards/mice (top left)
 VGA connector - for older/cheaper monitors (top middle)
 USB 2.0 ports - black in color (bottom left)

 USB 3.0 ports - blue in color (bottom middle)

31
The CPU's integrated graphics processor handles the HDMI and DVI-D sockets (bottom
middle) but the rest are managed by additional chips. Most motherboard have a raft of extra
little processors to manage all kinds of things, so let us have a look at some of those.

Additional chips for additional help

CPUs and chipsets have a limit to what they can support or connect to, so most motherboard
manufacturers offer products with extra features, thanks to the use of other integrated circuits.
This might be to provide extra SATA ports, for example, or provide connections for older
devices.

The Asus motherboard we've been looking at is no different. For example, the Nuvoton
NCT6791D chip handles all of the little connectors for fans and the temperature sensors built
into the board; the Asmedia ASM1083 processor next to it manages the two legacy PCI sockets,
because the Intel Z97 chip has no such capability.

32
Although Intel's chipset has a built-in network adapter, it uses some of those valuable high-
speed connections, so Asus added another Intel chip (an I218V) to manage the red ethernet
socket we saw in the I/O set. The above image does no justice to how small this chip is: it's just
0.24 inches (6 mm) square!
The stadium-shaped silver metal thing is a type of quartz crystal oscillator -- it provides a low
frequency timing signal, for the networking chip to stay synchronized.

33
Something else that this motherboard offers as an extra is a chip to handle audio. Yes, the Intel
chipset has its own integrated sound processor, but it's been bypassed for the same kind of
reasons that Asus have added a separate networking chip and that most people add a graphics
card to replace the integrated graphics processor in the CPU. In other words, the extra chip is
just better!
Not all the extra chips on the motherboard are about replacing integrated ones, many are there
to manage or control the operation of the board in general.

These little chips are PCI Express switches and help the CPU and Southbridge manage the 16
lane PCIe connectors, when they need to distribute the lanes to more devices.

34
Motherboards with the ability to overclock CPUs, chipsets, and system memory are now
commonplace, and many come with extra integrated circuits to manage this. In our example
board, highlighted in red, Asus is using its own design called the TPU ('TurboV Processing
Unit') that adjusts clock speeds and voltages to a fine level of control and adjustment.
The little Pm25LD512 device next to it, highlighted in blue, is a flash memory chip that stores
the clock and voltage settings when the motherboard is powered off, so you do not have to redo
them, every time you power up the PC.
Every single motherboard has at least one flash memory device, though, and this is for storing
the motherboard's BIOS (the basic hardware initialization operating system that gets everything
going before loading Windows, Linux, macOS, etc).

35
This Winbond chip is just 8 MB in size but that is more than enough to hold all of the software
needed. This kind of flash memory is designed to use very little power when in use and hold
onto its data for decades.
When you switch on the PC, the contents of the flash memory are copied directly to the CPU's
cache or system memory, and then run from there, for maximum performance. However, the
one thing that this memory cannot hold onto is time.

36
This motherboard, like every other one around, uses a CR2032 cell to power a simple timing
circuit, that keeps track of the data and time for the motherboard. Of course, the power of a cell
does not last forever and once it's flat, the motherboard will default to a starting time/date in
the flash memory.
And speaking of power, there are more connectors for that, too!

Bring me the power, Igor!

To provide the voltage and current required to run the motherboard and many of the devices
attached to it, the computer's power supply unit (PSU) will have several standard connectors
for this purpose. The main one is a 24-pin ATX12V version 2.4 socket.
The amount of current that can be drawn from the pins depends on the PSU, but the voltages
are industry set to +3.3, +5, and +12 volts.

37
The bulk of the current for the CPU is drawn off the 12-volt pins, but for modern high-end
systems, it's not enough. To get around this problem, there is an additional 8-pin power
connector that provides another four set of 12V pins to be used.

The connectors from the PSU have color coded wires to help identify what each wire is for,
but the sockets on the motherboard do not tell you very much. Here is a diagram for the two
power sockets:

38
The +3.3V, +5, and +12V lines supply power to the various components on the motherboard
itself, and powers the CPU, DRAM, and any devices plugged into the extension sockets such
as the USB or PCI Express slots. Anything using the SATA ports need power directly from the
PSU, though, and PCI Express sockets can only provide up to 75W. If the device needs more
juice than that -- lots of graphics cards do -- then they will need to be hooked up to the PSU
directly, too.
However, there is a larger problem than having enough 12V pins: CPUs don't run on that
voltage.
For example, the Intel CPUs designed to run on this Asus Z97 motherboard run off voltages
between 0.7 and 1.4 volts. It's not a fixed voltage, because today's CPUs vary how much voltage
they're running on to save power and reduce heat; so, when idling on the desktop, the CPU can
tootle away with less than 0.8 volts. Then with all the cores fully loaded and working away, it
rises to 1.4 volts or more.
Power supply units are designed to convert mains AC voltage (110 or 230, depending on the
country) into fixed DC voltages, so additional circuits must be used to drop them lower and
vary them as required. These circuits are called voltage regulation modules (VRMs, for short)
and can be easily spotted on any motherboard.

39
Each VRM is typically comprises 4 components:
 2x MOSFETs - high current switching transistors (blue)

 1x inductor - also known as a choke (purple)

 1x capacitor (yellow)

40
You can read more about how they work on Wikichip, but let us briefly go through a few
things. Each VRM is usually called a phase and multiple phases are required, because one alone
cannot supply enough current for a modern CPU (our motherboard has 8 VRMs, called an 8-
phase system).

The VRMs are usually managed by a separate chip, that monitors the device, and switches the
modules as for the required voltage. These are called multiphase pulse width
modulator controllers; Asus calls theirs an EPU! All these things get quite hot when they are
working away, so they're often covered by a metal heatsink to help dissipate the waste energy.
Even a standard desktop CPU, such as an Intel i7-9700K, can draw over 100A of current when
fully loaded. VRMs are very efficient, but they cannot change voltages without some losses;
combined with the large current draw, and you have a good recipe for making things very toasty
indeed.
If you look back up through this article, you will see that there a couple of VRMs for the DRAM
modules, too, but since they do not draw nearly the same amount of current as a CPU, they
don't get as hot (and so don't need a heatsink).

Those annoying fiddly bits!

The last connectors to talk about are the ones for controlling the basic operation of the
motherboard and attaching additional devices or extensions. The image below shows a basic
set of control, lights, and speaker pins:

41
Here we have:
 1x soft power switch

 1x reset switch

 2x LED connectors

 1x speaker connector
The power switch is 'soft' because it does not actually switch the motherboard on and off;
instead, circuits on the board monitor the voltage across the two pins for the switch and when
they are connected together (i.e., short circuited), the motherboard will either power on or off,
depending on its present status. The same applies for the reset switch, except here the
motherboard will always power off, and then immediately back on again.
Strictly speaking, the reset switch, LED and speaker connectors are not absolutely necessary,
but they do help to provide basic control and information about the board.

Most motherboards have a similar array of extra connectors as shown above - from left to
right, we have:
 Audio panel connector - if the PC case has headphone/microphone jacks built
into it, then they can be connected to the onboard sound chip

 Digital audio connector - same as the other audio connector, but for S/PDIF

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  BIOS clear jumper - this allows the BIOS to be reset to default factory settings.
There is also a thermal probe connector hidden behind it

 Trusted Platform Module connector - used to help make the motherboard and
system more secure
 Serial Port (COM) connector - an ancient interface. Anyone use these at all?
Anyone? Bueller?
Also plastered across this motherboard, but not shown, are connections for fans and extra
USB ports. Not every motherboard will sport all of these, but many do.

Connecting all of this together

Before we finish our look at the anatomy of a motherboard, let's briefly talk about how all of
these devices and connectors are wired together. We've already mentioned traces but what
exactly are they?
Put simply, they're small strips of copper. You can see some of them below painted black for
better looks. However, this is only a small number of thousands of traces required. The rest are
sandwiched between the multiple layers that make up the full circuit board.

Simple, cheap motherboards might only have 4 layers, but most today have 6 or 8 -- adding
more layers doesn't automatically make things better, though. It's about how many traces there
are in total and how important it is to keep them separated and insulated to prevent them
interfering with each other.
Motherboard designers use software to help them work out the best routes for all of these traces;
experienced engineers will often tweak the layout, though, based on evidence from practical
investigations. What the following video to get a sense of how the routing of traces in printed
circuit boards (PCBs) gets processed.

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 PROGRESS CHECK

Assignment 4. Give the list of generations of Motherboards. Write in table form with three (3)
columns indicating the (1) name/type, (2) processor support and features, and (3) the date
released. List in chronological order starting from the 8088/86 microprocessor support.

List of References

Business News Daily. (2020, December 2). Retrieved from Business News:
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10817-slideshow-intel-processors-over-the-
years.html

Goyal, A. (2020, September 1). Geeks for Geeks. Retrieved from geeksforgeeks.org:
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/types-of-area-networks-lan-man-and-wan/

Intel Processors. (2020, December 2). Retrieved from Intel:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

Tech Spot. (2020, December 2). Retrieved from techspot.com:

https://www.techspot.com/article/1965-anatomy-motherboard/

techdifferences.com. (2020, October 1). Retrieved from Tech Differences:

https://techdifferences.com/difference-between-tcp-ip-and-osi-model.html

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