Motherboard

The Motherboard is indeed the largest circuit card inyour computer.All components are attached to yourmotherboard either directly or indirectly.

In 1982,IBM or International Business Machines made theoriginal PC motherboard which used the 8088 CPU orCentral Processing Unit.This simple board also had a BIOS,memory sockets and adapter slots.

The Motherboard have several formats with the Baby ATbeing the classic format for 486 and Pentium computers.The ATX format comes with the Socket 7 and Slot 1 mainboard while the new NLX motherboard is considered lowcost with PCI and ISA slots mounted on raisers.

The Motherboard's form factor is its physical size andshape.The form facter measurement for motherboardsare from the outside dimensions.We will look at the Pentium Motherboard in and out of the case.

Let's take the time to look at the components of the motherboard and how they relate to each other.We willlook at the Titan 3 Gigabyte Pentium 4 Motherboard andits components.

COMPONENTS ON THE MOTHERBOARD

CPU Chip is the brains of any computer.This Pentium 42.5 gigabyte chips has a very large cooling fan whichcirculates air around the chip.

RAM Memory is where information is stored for very quick access by the computer.DIMM memory was the popularmemory chip until the more recent RIMM Chips came onthe scene.

BIOS Chip is that chip responsible for holding the datathe computer needs to start and to check all devices inthe system.This data is not lost when the computer isturned off.The cmos battery keeps the data intact.

CMOS Battery provides power to the BIOS Chip so thatthe computer can access the data on the chip.This dataallows the computer to boot up.

ISA Slots stands for Industry Standard Architecture andthis is the older and slower data bus used on 486 PCs.

PCI Slots replaced the slower ISA Slots.The PCI data bus gives the computer much faster data transfer fromthe device to the motherboard.

AGP Slot is used by the video card to provide quickand fast access by the cpu.Video data is send directlyto the cpu without any delay whatsoever.AGP stands forAccelerated Graphics Port: an Intel-designed 32-bit PC bus architecture introduced in 1997 allowing graphics cards direct access to the system bus.

USB Ports or Universal Serial Bus ports are Intel's newerstandard connection for attaching such peripherals asdigital cameras.

source : http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com/news/53.html