Diane Elizabeth B.

Camansag
BSA-1
Parts of motherboard

What is a motherboard?
So what is a motherboard? A computer
motherboard (also known as the mainboard) is one of the most crucial components
of a computer.
 
As the name suggests, a motherboard is the mother to all the other parts. In other
words, everything in a computer connects to the motherboard. A motherboard
(mobo) is the primary circuit board in a computer.

Motherboard (the mother to all the other

components)

A typical motherboard has attachment points for

all the common components in a computer. These
are the Power Supply, CPU (Central Processing
Unit), hard drive, RAM (Random Access Memory),
graphics card, CD drive and other peripheral
devices such as sound cards, network cards etc .
 

Built-in Motherboards
In recent motherboards, the sound cards and even the network cards are
built into the motherboard making it unnecessary to purchase additional

cards. Some even have built in graphics card; but personally I would
recommend buying a separate card. The reason for this, is because if you buy
a motherboard that has the graphics card built in then it becomes much
harder to upgrade your graphics in the future. Also unless you are just using

your computer for word processing and the internet then you will need a
better graphics card then those that are built into motherboards.
 
So what is a motherboard's most important component? The chipset is,
because it determines the capabilities and features of the motherboard.
 
Every motherboard is different. Some have more expansion slots others have
fancy features such as Wi-Fi or a 1394 connection. It is important that when
you buy a computer you choose one that suits your needs. For example, if
you have a wireless network that you want to connect to then it would be
wise to purchase a motherboard that has wireless built into it.
 

Choosing a Motherboard

Its important to know what a motherboard is before going out and buying one. I
have made this error myself in building a computer. I thought I would save a bit of
money and buy a cheaper motherboard, one that still ran my CPU fine but didn’t
have all the extras (wireless, firewire etc.)
 
Well the motherboard ran fine but in the end I needed to purchase all the extras
(wireless and firewire) because I needed them in my computer. So to avoid having
to purchase parts later it is a wise idea to not be skimpy on the motherboard and
buy one that really suits your needs. My page on Choosing a Motherboard will
explain the choosing process in more detail.
 

CPUs and Motherboards

Now every CPU (Central Processing Unit) does not go into every motherboard. This
means that if you buy an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU then you will need to buy a
motherboard that supports that CPU. Check with the manufacturer before buying the
motherboard to make sure that the CPU suits the motherboard.

Different Motherboard Components

There are many different components on a motherboard. To find out about each
different component click on the list below. I will briefly describe each component
and then explain what that component does in a motherboard.

 CPU Socket
 CMOS
 BIOS
 Memory Slots
  Power Connectors
 IDE Connectors


 SATA Connectors
 CMOS Battery
 AGP Graphics Slot
 PCI-Express Graphics Slot
 Buying a Motherboard
 PCI Slots
 Chipset
 How to install a Motherboard

A computer motherboard is a complicated and compulsory component of a

computer. Everything in a computer connects to the motherboard and learning about
computer motherboards is vital if you want to understand the computer.
 
So what is a motherboard? Well hopefully you know! If you still have any questions,
comments or reviews contact me or go to my new forum, become a member and
post it on the motherboard section.

Motherboard Integrated Components

This section identifies the various components that you will find on your motherboard,
and provides a brief description of each. There are pointers to the locations within this
page where full details on each component can be found. Obviously, motherboards
vary, and you may find more or fewer chips or devices on your board, depending on its
age and level of integration. These are the most common items found on a typical
modern motherboard. See this procedure for instructions on motherboard

configuration; this one for directions on motherboard installation; and this one for

instructions on connecting the motherboard to the system case.

CMOS
1. Alternatively referred to as a Real-Time Clock (RTC), Non-Volatile
RAM (NVRAM) or CMOS RAM, CMOS is short for Complementary
Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS is an on-board, battery powered
semiconductor chip inside computers that stores information. This
information ranges from the system
time and date to system hardware
settings for your computer. The
picture shows an example of the
most common CMOS coin cell battery
used to power the CMOS memory.
The Motorola 146818 chip was the first
RTC and CMOS RAM chip to be used in
early IBM computers; capable of storing a
total of 64 bytes of data. Since the system
clock used 14 bytes of RAM, this left an
additional 50 bytes for storing system
settings. Today, most computers have
moved the settings from CMOS and integrated them into
the southbridge or Super I/O chips.
How long does the CMOS battery last?

The standard lifetime of a CMOS battery is around 10 Years. However, this

can vary depending on the use and environment in which the computer
resides. If the battery fails, the system settings, date, and time will not be
saved when the computer is turned off until it has been replaced.
 How to replace the CMOS battery.
PRAM is the Apple Macintosh equivalent to CMOS.

Related pages
 How to enter the BIOS or CMOS setup.
 
 What is the difference between BIOS and CMOS?

 Computer CMOS help and support.

2. When referring to a camera, see our CMOS sensor definition.

Flash memory:
Removable Flash Memory Cards
There are a few reasons to use flash memory instead of a hard disk:
 It has no moving parts, so it's noiseless.
 It allows faster access.
 It's smaller in size and lighter.

So why don't we just use flash memory for everything? Because the cost per megabyte for a hard
disk is drastically cheaper, and the capacity is substantially more.

The solid-state floppy-disk card (SSFDC), better known as SmartMedia, was originally

developed by Toshiba. SmartMedia cards are available in capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128
MB. The card itself is quite small, approximately 45 mm long, 37 mm wide and less than 1 mm
thick. 

As shown below, SmartMedia cards are extremely simple. A plane electrode is connected to the
flash-memory chip by bonding wires. The flash-memory chip, plane electrode and bonding
wires are embedded in a resin using a technique called over-molded thin package (OMTP).
This allows everything to be integrated into a single package without the need for soldering.

The OMTP module is glued to a base card to create

the actual card. Power and data is carried by the
electrode to the Flash-memory chip when the card is
inserted into a device. A notched corner indicates the
power requirements of the SmartMedia card. Looking
at the card with the electrode facing up, if the notch is
on the left side, the card needs 5 volts. If the notch is
on the right side, it requires 3.3 volts.

SmartMedia cards erase, write and read memory in

small blocks (256- or 512-byte increments). This
approach means that they are capable of fast, reliable
performance while allowing you to specify which data you wish to keep.They are less rugged than other
forms of removable solid-state storage, so you should be very careful when handling and storing them.
Because of newer, smaller cards with bigger
 storage capacities, such as xD-Picture Cards and Secure Digital cards, Toshiba has essentially
discontinued the production of SmartMedia cards, so they're now difficult to find.

CompactFlash cards were developed by Sandisk in 1994, and they're different from SmartMedia cards in
two important ways:
 They're thicker.


 They utilize a controller chip.

CompactFlash consists of a small circuit board with flash-memory chips and a dedicated controller chip, all
encased in a rugged shell that is thicker than a SmartMedia card. CompactFlash cards are 43 mm wide
and 36 mm long, and come in two thicknesses: Type I cards are 3.3 mm thick, and Type II cards are 5.5
mm thick.

CompactFlash card

CompactFlash cards support dual voltage and will operate at either 3.3 volts or 5 volts.

The increased thickness of the card allows for greater storage capacity than SmartMedia cards.
CompactFlash sizes range from 8 MB to as much as 100GB. The onboard controller can increase
performance, particularly in devices that have slow processors. The case and controller chip add size,
weight and complexity to the CompactFlash card when compared to the SmartMedia card.
 Cache Memory Basics

Eager to improve storage performance, many were quick to consider cache memory - but just as
quickly find it to be challenging to implement and expensive. Check out this quick guide for an
overview on some of the basic concepts surrounding cache memory and best practices for leveraging
cache memory technologies.
Top of Form

In computing, active data is often cached to shorten data access times,

reduce latency and improve input/output (I/O). Because almost all
application workload is dependent upon I/O operations, caching is used to
improve application performance.

For example, Web browserssuch as Internet

Explorer,Firefox, Safari and Chrome use a browser cache to improve performance
for frequently accessed webpages. When you visit a webpage,
the filesyour browser requests are stored on your computing storage in the
browser's cache. If you click "back" and return to that page, your browser can
retrieve most of the files it needs from cache instead of requesting they all be sent
again. This approach is called read cache. It is much faster for your browser to
read data from the browser cache than to have to re-read the files from the
webpage.
 Cache algorithms
Cache algorithms provide instructions for how the cache should be maintained. Some examples
of cache algorithms include:

 Least Frequently Used (LFU) uses a counter to keep track of how often an entry is
accessed; the entry with the lowest count is removed first.

 Least Recently Used (LRU) keeps recently used items near the top of cache; when the
cache limit has been reached, items that have been accessed less recently are removed.

 Most Recently Used (MRU) removes the most recently used items first; this approach is
good for situations in which older items are more likely to be accessed.

Types of cache

Write-around cache allows write operations to be written to storage, skipping the cache

altogether. This keeps the cache from becoming flooded when large amounts of write I/O occur.
The disadvantage is that data is not cached unless it is read from storage. As such, the initial
read operation will be comparatively slow because the data has not yet been cached.

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Write-through cache writes data to both the cache and storage. The advantage to this approach
is that newly written data is always cached, thereby allowing the data to be read quickly. A
drawback is that write operations are not considered to

be complete until the data is written to both the cache and primary storage. This causes write-
through caching to introduce latency into write operations.
Write-back cache is similar to write-through caching in that all write operations are directed to
the cache. The difference is that once the data is cached, the write operation is considered
complete. The data is later copied from the cache to storage. In this approach, there is low
latency for both read and write operations. The disadvantage is that, depending on the caching
mechanism used, the data may be vulnerable to loss until it is committed to storage.

Popular uses for cache

Cache server: A dedicated network server, or service acting as a server, that saves webpages or
other Internet content locally. This is sometimes referred to as a proxy cache.

Disk cache: Holds data that has recently been read and perhaps adjacent data areas that are likely to be
accessed soon. Some disk caches are designed to cache data based on how frequently it is read.
Storage blocks that are read frequently are referred to as hot blocks and are automatically moved to the
cache.

Cache memory: Random access memory (RAM) that a computermicroprocessor can access more quickly
than it can access regular RAM. Cache memory is usually tied directly to the CPU and is used to cache
instructions that are frequently accessed by the processes that are currently running. Although a RAM
cache is much faster than a disk-based cache, cache memory is much faster than a RAM cache because of
its proximity to the CPU.

Flash cache: Temporary storage of data on NAND flash memory chips  -- often in the form of solid-state
drive (SSD) storage -- to enable requests for data to be fulfilled with greater speed than would be possible
if the cache were located on a traditional hard disk drive (HDD).

How to increase cache memory

Cache memory is a part of the CPU complex and is therefore either included on the CPU itself or is
embedded into a chip on the system board. Typically, the only way to increase cache memory is to install a
next-generation system board and a corresponding next-gene

ration CPU. Some older system boards included vacant slots that could be used to increase the cache
memory capacity, but most newer system boards do not include such an option.
Also see: buffer, which, like cache, is a temporary place for data; however, the main purpose of a buffer is
to absorb demand spikes. For instance, a write buffer might use flash storage to temporarily store write ope

rations and then move the recently written data to the system’s main storage when resources are more
readily available. In this situation, the SSD storage is faster than HDD storage and can complete write
operations more quickly. The data isn’t cached on the SSD, as the SSD is only used as a temporary
data repository.

Related Terms

DRAM (dynamic random access memory)

Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is a common type of random access memory
(RAM) used in personal computers, workstations and ...See complete definition

storage hypervisor
Storage hypervisors make more efficient use of storage resources in a virtual
environment. See complete definition

storage resource management (SRM)

An important goal of storage resource management is to make it easier for storage
administrators to reclaim unused storage See complete definition