Computer Hardware Fundamentals

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Motherboard
Motherboard
What is a motherboard?
It is considered to be the centerpiece of the
system unit.
The motherboard is capable of interfacing
with other circuitry boards such as video
cards and LAN card. These peripheral
cards are also known as daughter cards.
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Motherboard
Motherboard
The illustration demonstrates other means of
connectivity to a motherboard.
1. Mouse & keyboard
2. USB
3. Parallel port
4. CPU Chip
5. RAM slots
6. Floppy controller
7. IDE controller
8. PCI slot
9. ISA slot
10. CMOS Battery
11. AGP slot
12. CPU slot
13. Power supply plug in
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Motherboard
Motherboard
There many manufacturers that compete in
the motherboard arena. Each of the
manufacturer offers a varied range of features
that the consumer can choose from
depending on their needs.
Some of them are:
ASUSTek (ASUS)
http://ph.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3
ECS
www.ecs.com.tw
MSI
http://asia.msi.com.tw/
AMD
http://www.amd.com
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Motherboard
Form Factors
Commonly known obsolete PC motherboard
form factors:
Full-size AT
PC/XT
Baby-AT
LPX
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Motherboard
Form Factors
IBM PC-XT motherboard
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Motherboard
Form Factors
IBM AT motherboard
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Motherboard
Form Factors
Baby-AT motherboard
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Motherboard
Form Factors
LPX motherboard back panel connectors
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Motherboard
Form Factors
LPX system chassis and motherboard
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Motherboard
Form Factors
Form Factor Use
Max.
Slots
ATX
Standard tower and desktop
systems; most common form
factor from mid-1996 through the
present; supports high-end
systems
7
mini-ATX
A slightly smaller version of ATX
that fits the ATX chassis; many
ATX motherboards are sold as
Mini-ATX motherboards
6
microATX
Smaller version of ATX; used in
mid-range systems; fits the
microATX or ATX chassis
4
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que
Publishing
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Motherboard
Form Factors
ATX motherboard orientation
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Motherboard
Form Factors
ATX motherboard and rear panel
connections
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Motherboard
Form Factors
microATX motherboard
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Motherboard
Form Factors
Mini-ITX motherboard
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Motherboard
Chipsets
A chipset is group of microchip on the
motherboard that controls the flow of data
and instructions to and from the CPU.
Earlier chipsets are composed of the
following architecture:
North Bridge
South Bridge
In hub architecture, the North Bridge chip is
called Memory Controller Hub (MCH) while
the South Bridge is called I/O Controller
Hub (ICH).
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Motherboard
Common PC Chipset
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Motherboard
Intel/SIS/VIA/AMD
Chipsets
Early Intel 386/486 Chipsets
Fifth-Generation (P5 Pentium Class)
Chipsets
Sixth-Generation (P6 Pentium Pro/II/III
Class) Chipsets
Seventh-Generation (Pentium 4) Chipsets
Third-Party Pentium-4 Chipsets
SiS Chipsets
VIA Chipsets
AMD Athlon/AthlonXP/Duron Chipsets
AMD Athlon 64 and Sempron Chipsets
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Motherboard
Connectors
Typical motherboard connectors
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Motherboard
Connectors
Front panel switch/LED connections
using 2-pin connectors
Connector Pins Description
A 1 and 3 Hard disk activity LED
B 2 and 4 Power LED
C 5 and 7 Reset switch
D 6 and 8 Power switch
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que Publishing
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Motherboard
Connectors
Dual-USB header connector configuration
Description Signal Names Pin
Port 0 +5V USB0_PWR 1
Port 0 Data- USB_D0- 3
Port 0 Data+ USB_D0+ 5
Port 0 Ground GND 7
No pin Key 9
Port 1 +5V USB1_PWR 2
Port 1 Data- USB_D1- 4
Port 1 Data+ USB_D1+ 6
Port 1 Ground GND 8
No Connect/Shield NC/Shield 10
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que
Publishing
Computer Hardware Fundamentals
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Motherboard
Connectors
Front panel USB cable using multiple
individual non-keyed connectors
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Motherboard
Connectors
IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.LINK) header
connector configuration
Pin Signal Name
TPA+ 1
Ground 3
TPB+ 5
+12V (Fused) 7
Key (no pin) 9
TPA- 2
Ground 4
TPB- 6
+12V (Fused) 8
Ground 10
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and
repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que Publishing
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Motherboard
Connectors
Front panel audio header connector
configuration
Description Signal Name Pin
Microphone input AUD_MIC 1
Microphone power AUD_MIC_BIAS 3
Right channel audio AUD_FPOUT_R 5
Ground or headphone
amplifier control
GND/HP_ON 7
Left channel audio AUD_FPOUT_L 9
Analog audio ground AUD_GND 2
Filtered +5V for analog
audio
AUD_VCC 4
Right channel return AUD_RET_R 6
No pin KEY 8
Left channel return AUD_RET_L 10
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que
Publishing
Computer Hardware Fundamentals
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Motherboard
Connectors
Infrared data front panel header connector
configuration
Description Signal Pin
No connect NC 1
IR_power +5V 3
IrDA serial output IR_TX 5
No pin Key 2
Ground GND 4
IrDA serial input IR_RX 6
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que
Publishing
Computer Hardware Fundamentals
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Motherboard
Fan power connectors
Connectors
Pin Signal Name
1 Ground
2 +12V
3 Sense tachometer
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and
repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que Publishing
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Motherboard
Buses
A bus is an electrical channel that transfers
bits internally within the circuitry of a
computer allowing all of the devices to
communicate with each other.
Bus carries the following:
electrical power
control signals
memory addresses
Data
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Motherboard
System Bus
Local bus works synchronously with the
CPU and the system clock.
The system bus is connected directly to the
CPU and is synchronized with the CPU.
Types of system bus:
Data Bus
Address Bus
Control Bus
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Motherboard
Local I/O Buses
Local I/O bus is a type of local bus
designed to support fast input and output
devices such as hard drives and video.
Types of local I/O bus:
Video Electronics Standards
Association (VESA)
Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI)
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
PCI-Express
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Motherboard
Expansion Buses
Expansion bus works asynchronously with
the CPU at a much slower rate.
Types of expansion bus:
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
Extended ISA (EISA)
Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
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Motherboard
BIOS
The basic input/output system (BIOS) is a
low-level software that controls the system
hardware.
It is the link between the hardware and the
operating system.
It is also referred to as device drivers or
drivers.
Three possible sources of BIOS in a PC:
1. Motherboard ROM
2. Adapter card ROM
3. Loaded into RAM from disk
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Motherboard
BIOS
Real time clock/nonvolatile memory
(RTC/NVRAM)
also known as CMOS RAM
a portion of its memory was dedicated to
the clock function while the rest was used
to store BIOS Setup information
(configuration settings)
Four main functions of the BIOS:
POST
Setup
Bootstrap loader
BIOS
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Motherboard
BIOS
Four main types of ROM chips in PCs:
1. Read-only memory (ROM)
2. Programmable ROM (PROM)
3. Erasable PROM (EPROM)
4. Electrically EPROM (EEPROM)
ROM Type Part Number
ROM No longer in use
PROM 27xxxx
EPROM 27xxxx
EEPROM/Flash 28xxxx or 29xxxx
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs
(17th ed.), Que Publishing
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Motherboard
BIOS
Popular ROM BIOS manufacturers:
American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI)
Phoenix Technologies
Award Software
Keystrokes to enter BIOS Setup in some
systems:
AMI BIOS Delete
Phoenix BIOS (FirstBIOS Pro) F2
Award BIOS (FirstBIOS) Delete or
Ctrl+Alt+Esc
Microid Research (MR) BIOS Esc
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Motherboard
BIOS
Setup Menu Screen Description
Maintenance Specifies the processor speed and
clears the setup passwords. This
menu is available only in Configure
mode, set by a jumper on the board.
Main Allocates resources for hardware
components.
Advanced Specifies advanced features
available through the chipset.
Security Specifies passwords and security
features.
Power Specifies power management
features.
Boot Specifies boot options and power
supply controls.
Exit Saves and discards changes to the
setup program options.
Source: Mueller, Scott, (2006), Upgrading and repairing PCs (17th ed.), Que Publishing
Settings based on the BIOS used in the Intel D875PBZ
motherboard. Used by permission of Intel Corporation.