Name of the Student: Parth Gandhi

Year: FY

Class: BSC. HS

Aim: to study various computer architecture.

Theory:

1. Mother board

A motherboard  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 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.
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.
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.
 2. RAM

Random-access memory (RAM)  is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in
any order, typically used to store working data and machine code.[1][2] A random-access memory
device allows data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time irrespective of
the physical location of data inside the memory. In contrast, with other direct-access data storage
media such as hard disks, CD-RWs, DVD-RWs and the older magnetic tapes and drum memory,
the time required to read and write data items varies significantly depending on their physical
locations on the recording medium, due to mechanical limitations such as media rotation speeds
and arm movement.

RAM contains multiplexing and demultiplexing circuitry, to connect the data lines to the

addressed storage for reading or writing the entry. Usually more than one bit of storage is
accessed by the same address, and RAM devices often have multiple data lines and are said to be
"8-bit" or "16-bit", etc. devices.
In today's technology, random-access memory takes the form of integrated circuit (IC) chips
with MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) memory cells. RAM is normally associated
with volatile types of memory (such as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) modules),
where stored information is lost if power is removed, although non-volatile RAM has also been
developed.[3] Other types of non-volatile memories exist that allow random access for read
operations, but either do not allow write operations or have other kinds of limitations on them.
These include most types of ROM and a type of flash memory called NOR-Flash.
The two main types of volatile random-access semiconductor memory are static random-access
memory (SRAM) and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). Commercial uses of
semiconductor RAM date back to 1965, when IBM introduced the SP95 SRAM chip for
their System/360 Model 95 computer, and Toshiba used DRAM memory cells for its Toscal BC-
1411 electronic calculator, both based on bipolar transistors. Commercial MOS memory, based
on MOS transistors, was developed in the late 1960s, and has since been the basis for all
commercial semiconductor memory. The first commercial DRAM IC chip, the Intel 1103, was
introduced in October 1970. Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) later
debuted with the Samsung KM48SL2000 chip in 1992.

3. PIC Slots
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local computer bus for
attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. The
PCI bus supports the functions found on a processor bus but in a standardized format that
is independent of any particular processor's native bus. Devices connected to the PCI bus
appear to a bus master to be connected directly to its own bus and are assigned addresses
in the processor's address space. It is a parallel bus, synchronous to a single bus clock.
Attached devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto
the motherboard itself (called a planar device in the PCI specification) or an expansion
card that fits into a slot. The PCI Local Bus was first implemented in IBM PC
 compatibles, where it displaced the combination of several slow Industry Standard
Architecture (ISA) slots and one fast VESA Local Bus slot as the bus configuration. It
has subsequently been adopted for other computer types. Typical PCI cards used in PCs
include: network cards, sound cards, modems, extra ports such as USB or serial, TV tuner
cards and hard disk drive host adapters. PCI video cards replaced ISA and VESA cards
until growing bandwidth requirements outgrew the capabilities of PCI. The preferred
interface for video cards then became AGP, itself a superset of PCI, before giving way to
PCI Express.
4. SMPS and different ports
A switched-mode power supply  is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching
regulator to convert electrical power efficiently.
Like other power supplies, an SMPS transfers power from a DC or AC source (often mains
power, see AC adapter) to DC loads, such as a personal computer, while
converting voltage and current characteristics. Unlike a linear power supply, the pass transistor
of a switching-mode supply continually switches between low-dissipation, full-on and full-off
states, and spends very little time in the high dissipation transitions, which minimizes wasted
energy. A hypothetical ideal switched-mode power supply dissipates no power. Voltage
regulation is achieved by varying the ratio of on-to-off time (also known as duty cycles). In
contrast, a linear power supply regulates the output voltage by continually dissipating power in
the pass transistor. This higher power conversion efficiency is an important advantage of a
switched-mode power supply. Switched-mode power supplies may also be substantially smaller
and lighter than a linear supply due to the smaller transformer size and weight.
Switching regulators are used as replacements for linear regulators when higher efficiency,
smaller size or lighter weight are required. They are, however, more complicated; their switching
currents can cause electrical noise problems if not carefully suppressed, and simple designs may
have a poor power factor.
The main advantage of the switching power supply is greater efficiency (up to 96%) than linear
regulators because the switching transistor dissipates little power when acting as a switch.
Other advantages include smaller size, lower noise, and lighter weight from the elimination of
heavy line-frequency transformers, and comparable heat generation. Standby power loss is often
much less than transformers. The transformer in a switching power supply is also smaller than a
traditional line frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz depending on region) transformer, and therefore
requires smaller amounts of expensive raw materials, like copper.
Disadvantages include greater complexity, the generation of high-amplitude, high-frequency
energy that the low-pass filter must block to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI), a ripple
voltage at the switching frequency and the harmonic frequencies thereof.
Very low cost SMPSs may couple electrical switching noise back onto the mains power line,
causing interference with devices connected to the same phase, such as A/V equipment. Non-
power-factor-corrected SMPSs also cause harmonic distortion.
Conclusion:
We have successfully studied and created a report on computer Architecture with respect to
the simple guidelines given.