A motherboard acts as a platform for establishing connections between various

components that are required to run our computer smoothly. It’s a printed circuit board (PCB)
that houses all the motherboard components, either soldered or connected discretely through
expansion slots. In other words, a motherboard can also be defined as the basic building block
of a computer.
As you might know, a standard laptop or a desktop computer is made up of different things
such as the CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and much more. All these components talk to each
other via common hardware known as the motherboard or simply mobo. Most users don’t
have much idea about the green coloured thing placed inside their machine. So, the question,
“What is a Motherboard?” sounds curious to the ears, let’s dive into the world of
motherboards.

Motherboard:

A motherboard is basically a printed circuit board (PCB) used to connect different parts
of a computer like the central processing unit, memory, hard drive, printer, mouse, keyboard,
graphics card, and other peripherals through physical slots and interface connectors. If you’ve
ever opened up your machine, you might’ve observed different lines going in various directions.
These lines constitute a circuit used to allow communication between different hardware
devices attached to the motherboard – electrical signals carrying data or information pass
through these lines. The flow of current in the printed circuit board is similar to a normal circuit,
though, less in voltage. The advantage is that it can be accommodated in less space than the
conventional one.
History of Motherboard:

The development of motherboards has been parallelly propelled with the advent of
microprocessors–your regular CPU chip like Intel Core i5–in computer machines. Before the
microprocessors, the computers housed multiple PCBs that were connected to each other
through a backplane. A backplane is a parallel arrangement of electrical connectors, each of
them aligned with the other such that every pin from a connector gets linked with the relative
pin of the other. This backplane was used to connect multiple PCBs together. Components like
the central processing unit (CPU), memory, and other peripherals were connected to different
PCBs and then combined using the backplane.
Over time, with microprocessors coming into existence, these backplanes became a thing of the
past, and various components were integrated directly into a single Printed Circuit Board. Thus,
a single PCB, termed as Motherboard, was only required for a computer.
In the 1980s, companies like Apple and IBM released the documentation and blueprints of their
motherboards. This was intended to allow the production of replacement motherboards for
their popular computers like the Apple II and the IBM PC. The motherboards began to become
more consolidated but complex at the same time. Super I/O (single ICs) chips started to exist in
the motherboard in the late 80s, allowing support for low-speed peripherals like mouse,
keyboard, floppy drive, etc.
peripherals
As the clock started approaching the millennium year, the need for expansion slots was
eliminated for the components like video, storage, audio, and network adapters by embedding
them into the motherboard. Currently, the motherboards have taken a leap to a stage where
almost negligible changes can be made after a motherboard is manufactured. The size of the
motherboard has reduced drastically over the last few decades and may continue to shrink
down further.
 1. USB (Universal serial bus):

USB is Universal serial bus. It is used for connection for PC. There are different devices
which are used to connect with USB port such as mouse, keyboards, scanners, cameras, and
even printers.USB connector is used to connect computer motherboard and a peripheral
device. You can insert or remove peripheral device connect by USB connector without
restarting your system.

For USB computer cable connections, there are two popular formats: USB 2.0 and the newer USB 3.0.

2. Parallel Port:

A parallel port is an interface allowing a personal computer (PC) to transmit or receive

data down multiple bundled cables to a peripheral device such as a printer. The most common
parallel port is a printer port known as the Centronics port. A parallel port has multiple
connectors and in theory allows data to be sent simultaneously down several cables at once.
Later versions allow bi-directional communications. This technology is still used today for low-
data-rate communications such as dot-matrix printing. The standard for the bi-directional
version of a parallel port is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1284. This
standard defined bi-directional parallel communication between computers and other
peripheral devices allowing data bits to be transmitted and received simultaneously. This term
is also known as a Centronics port or printer port and has now been largely superseded by the
USB interface.
 3. PS/2 Ports:

The PS/2 (Personal System/2) port, also referred to as the mouse port or keyboard port, was
developed by IBM. It is used to connect a computer mouse or keyboard to an IBM compatible
computer. The PS/2 port is a mini DIN plug that contains six pins and is still sometimes found on
all IBM compatible computers.

4. VGA:

Short for Video Graphics Adapter or Video Graphics Array, VGA is a popular display standard
developed by IBM and introduced in 1987. VGA provides 640 x 480 resolution color display
screens with a refresh rate of 60 Hz and 16 colors displayed at a time. If the resolution is
lowered to 320 x 200, 256 colors are shown.

VGA utilizes analog signals, which means it's only capable of lower resolutions and a lower
quality display on screens.
 5. Line in:

Line in or line-in is a jack found on computer sound cards enabling users to connect an external
audio device. These devices include CD players, audio mixers, musical instruments, and
microphones. They're used to record, play, and modify the incoming audio. Line in may be
alternatively referred to as audio in and sound in.

6. Line out:

Alternatively referred to as audio out and sound out, the line out jack is found on computer
sound cards. It allows external speakers, headphones, or other output devices to connect to the
computer, transferring computer generated audio to the devices so that it can be heard.

7. Microphone:

It used to connect a microphone into this jack to record sounds on your computer.

8. RJ-45:
Short for Registered Jack-45, an RJ-45 is an 8-pin connection used for Ethernet network
adapters. This connector resembles the RJ-11 or 6-pin connector used with telephones in the
United States, but they're completely different.

This connector most commonly connects to the end of Cat 5 cable, which connects between a
computer network card and a network device, such as a network router.

9. DVI (Digital Visual Interface):

It is used to send digital information from a computer to a digital display, such as a flat-panel
LCD monitor.

10. AC:

Short for alternating current, AC is an electrical current that reverses or alternates its direction
of flow. On May 1, 1888, Nikola Tesla patented the rotating field motor, an invention that
generates and transmits AC power, still in use today. Tesla later sold the rights to George
Westinghouse.

AC power's main advantage over DC is that its voltage can be changed using a device called a
transformer. A standard wall outlet in the United States is 110 volts transmitting currents at 60
hertz per second. European power systems use 220 volts alternating current at 50 Hz.

When plugged into an AC power outlet, your computer's power supply changes this "direct
power," converting it into direct current. It also drops the voltage to keep the sensitive
components in your computer protected.
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