AL-Azhar University – Gaza

Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology

Microprocessors
Laboratory report

‘MOTHERBOARD ’

Student Name:

Ahmed Ali AbuNasser ‘20113684’

Submitted To:

ENG. Mahmoud hassanien

Second semester
2013/2014
 Contents

MOTHERBOARD .......................................................................................................................... 1

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................ 1

Defention ................................................................................................................................................ 1

History of Motherboard ......................................................................................................................... 1

Differences between motherboards ....................................................................................................... 1

MOTHERBOARD COMPONENTS ........................................................................................................................... 2

COMMUNICATION NETWORKS ........................................................................................................................... 6

Parallel Data........................................................................................................................................... 6

Serial Data .............................................................................................................................................. 6

Which is better? ..................................................................................................................................... 7

MOTHERBOARD

INTRODUCTION

DEFENTION
A motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds
many of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other
peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the main board, system
board. The motherboard contains the connectors for attaching additional boards. Typically,
the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and
parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral
devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive.

HISTORY OF MOTHERBOA RD
Before the invention of microprocessors, computers were built in mainframes, with components
which were connected by a backplane that had countless slots for connecting wires. In old
designs, wires were needed to connect card connector pins but, soon they became a thing of
past with the invent of PCBs. The CPU, memory and other peripherals were all housed on the
printed circuit board. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it was found that increasing the
number of peripheral functions on the PCB was very economical. Hence, single Integrated
Circuits (ICs), capable of supporting low-speed peripherals like serial ports, mouse,
keyboards, etc., were included on the motherboards. By the late 1990s, they began to have
full range of audio, video, storage and networking functions on them. Higher end systems for
3D gaming and graphic cards were also include later. With the steadily declining costs and
size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the
motherboard. By combining many functions on one PCB, the physical size and total cost of
the system may be reduced; highly-integrated motherboards are thus especially popular in
small form factor and budget computers.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MOTHERBOARDS

All motherboards are not born equal, and you can encounter myriad differences. The most
important is the type of processor ¡t supports. In addition, there will be memory module
slots; expansion slots (such as PCI, PCIe and AGP) so you can add extras like sound and
graphics cards; support for the hard and CD-ROM drives; and, finally, connectors for
keyboard, mouse and peripherals. It’s also becoming quite common for certain models of
board to have some built-in basic sound or graphic capabilities, and even integrated
networking capabilities. Some motherboards even have 2 network ports built in.

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MOTHERBOARD COMPONENTS

Figure 1: schematic design for a motherboard.

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1. Chipset

A chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to
work together. They are usually marketed as a single product. A chipset is usually designed to
work with a specific family of microprocessors. Because it controls communications between
the processor and external devices, the chipset plays a crucial role in determining system
performance. Current manufacturers of chipsets for PC-compatible motherboards include
NVIDIA, AMD, VIA Technologies, SIS, Intel and Broadcom. Apple computers and UNIX
workstations from Sun.

2. USB CONNECTOR

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a specification to establish communication between devices and
a host controller (usually personal computers). USB is intended to replace many varieties of
serial and parallel ports. USB can connect computer peripheral such as mice, keyboards,
digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives. For
many of those devices, USB has become the standard connection method. USB was designed
for personal computers, but it has become commonplace on other devices such as
smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles, and as a power cord between a device and an
AC adapter plugged into a wall plug for charging. As of 2008, there are about 2 billion USB
devices sold per year, and approximately 6 billion total sold to date. The Universal Serial Bus
gives you a single, standardized, easy-to-use way to connect up to 127 devices to a
computer.

3. DIMM SOCKET

A DIMM. Or dual in-line memory module, comprises a series of dynamic random access
memory integrated circuits. These modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and
designed for use in personal computers. Workstations and servers. DLMMs began to replace
SI MMs (single in-line memory modules) as the predominant type of memory module as
Intel’s Pentium processors began to gain market share. The main difference between SLMMs
and DIMMs is that standard SIMMs have a 32-bit data path, while standard DIMMs have a
64-bit data path.

Two types of DIMMs: a 168-pin SD RAM module (top) and a 184-pin DDR SDRAM module
(bottom).Note that the SDRAM module has two notches on the bottom edge, while the
DDR1 SD RAM module has only one. Also note that both modules have 8 RAM chips, but the
lower one has an unoccupied space for a 9th.

4. CPU socket

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 A CPU socket or CPU slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board
and is designed to house a microprocessor. It is a special type of integrated circuit socket
designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including providing
a physical structure to support the CPU, providing support for a heatsink, facilitating
replacement (as well as reducing cost) and most importantly forming an electrical interface
both with the Cpu and the PCB. CPU sockets can most often be found in most desktop and
server computers (laptops typically use surface mount CPUs), particularly those based on the
Intel x86 architecture on the motherboard.

Function

A CPU socket is often made up of plastic, a metal lever or latch and metal contacts for
each of the pins or lands on the CPU. Most packages are keyed to ensure the proper
insertion of the CPU. CPUs with a PGA package are inserted into the socket and the latch
is closed. This has the effect of physically securing and protecting the CPU as well as
causing an electrical connection between all the CPU pins and the socket. In the case of
LGA the CPU is placed onto the socket and a latch is closed over the CPU, securing it.
Most CPU sockets are designed to support the installation of a heatsink.

5. BIOS

Bois is a special software in order to connect between OS & motherboard. It is known as first
power on software of computer. Bois task is to prepare hardware and software for working
compute r. This process is known as booting. BIOS is an acronym for Basic Input Output
System. It is a program that stores configuration details about your computer hardware and
enables your computer to boot up. Every time your computer is switched on the BIOS loads
configuration data into main memory, performs a routine diagnostic test on your hardware,
then loads the operating system. The BIOS resides in a ROM chip, which is mounted on the
motherboard, usually in a socket so it is removable.

Bios battery

 Bios consist of memory part that is named EEPROM.

 EEPROM is the most important feature when the electricity break keeping the data.
 It keeps the motherboard alive when the computer is off.

6. CMOS

A lot of information is recorded in the CMOS chip. For instance which device is first boot (CD-
ROM or floppy) which driver is installed in CMOS CHIP, POWER OPTIONS etc. A
semiconductor technology that uses less power and generates less heat (enabling higher
circuit density) than bipolar semiconductor technologies.

7. Isa slot

ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) it is the standard architecture of the Expansion bus.
Motherboard may contain some slots to connect ISA compatible cards. Only some card that
proper 16 bit system can be inserted here.

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8. PCI Slot

PCI slots (peripheral component interconnect) for connecting PCI cards. PCI slots are
designed 32 bit system. So, it uses more common to ISA slots because it is much faster than
ISA slots. That means card’s working performance is increase.

9. ATX connector

ATX connector feature is provided power supply by motherboard. As long as the user does
not touch mouse and keyboard, the screen is closed automatically via ATX connector.

10. COM Ports

COMs ports, where is part of computer, are motherboard’s external connection is via here.

11. AGP

AGP (advanced graphic slot) Slots. There is only one on the motherboard. AGP slots are
created special for display card. This slot works 128 bits system near to processor, the reason
is that provide faster data transfer among processor.

12. IDE connector

No matter what you do with your computer, storage is an important part of your system. In
fact, most personal computers have one or more of the following storage devices:

 Floppy drive
 Hard drive
 CD-ROM drive

Usually, these devices connect to the computer through an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
interface. Essentially, an IDE interface is a standard way for a storage device to connect to a
computer. IDE is actually not the true technical name for the interface standard. The original
name, AT Attachment (ATA), signified that the interface was initially developed for the IBM
AT computer.

There are two IDE connector on the motherboard these connector are for hard disc and CD-
ROM. These connectors provide connection among motherboard-hard disc and
motherboard-CD ROM by data cable.

13. Floppy drive connector

Data transfer is provided by cables

14. Sound Cards

A sound card allows a computer to create and record real, high-quality sound. Numerous
factors affect a sound card’s abilities to provide clear, high-quality sound. When shopping for
a sound card, pay attention to:

 ADC and DAC data capacity, measured in bits.

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  Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and total harmonic distortion (THD).
 Frequency response, or how loudly the card can play sounds at different
frequencies.
 Sampling rate.
 Output channels, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.
 Supported application programming interfaces (APIs).
 Certifications, including Dolby Master and THX.

15. Northbridge

An integrated circuit (generally Intel or VIA) that is responsible for the communications
between the CPU interface, AGP, PCI and the memory. The Northbridge gets its name for
commonly Northbridge of the PCI bus. Below is a graphic illustration of the ASUS P5AD2-E
motherboard and some basic explanations of each of the major portions of the
motherboard, including the Northbridge. As shown in the below picture, it’s common for the
Northbridge and Southbridge to have a heatsink; in addition, the Northbridge is usually
slightly larger than the Southbridge.

16. Southbridge

The Southbridge can usually be distinguished from the Northbridge by not being directly
connected to the CPU. Rather, the Northbridge ties the Southbridge to the CPU. Through the
use of controller integrated channel circuitry, the Northbridge can directly link signals from
the I/O units to the CPU for data control and access.

COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

In a digital communications system, there are 2 methods for data transfer: parallel and serial.
Parallel connections have multiple wires running parallel to each other (hence the name),
and can transmit data on all the wires simultaneously. Serial, on the other hand, uses a single
wire to transfer the data bits one at a time.

PARALLEL DATA
The parallel port on modern computer systems is an example of a parallel communications
connection. The parallel port has 8 data wires, and a large series of ground wires and control
wires. IDE harddisk connectors and PCI expansion ports are another good example of parallel
connections in a computer system.

SERIAL DATA
The serial port on modern computers is a good example of serial communications. Serial ports
have either a single data wire, or a single differential pair, and the remainder of the wires are

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 either ground or control signals. USB, FireWire, SATA and PCI Express are good examples of
other serial communications standards in modern computers.

WHICH IS BETTER?
It is a natural question to ask which one of the two transmission methods is better. At first
glance, it would seem that parallel ports should be able to send data much faster than serial
ports. Let's say we have a parallel connection with 8 data wires, and a serial connection with
a single data wire. Simple arithmetic seems to show that the parallel system can transmit 8
times as fast as the serial system. However, parallel ports suffer extremely from inter-symbol
interference (ISI) and noise, and therefore the data can be corrupted over long distances.
Also, because the wires in a parallel system have small amounts of capacitance and mutual
inductance, the bandwidth of parallel wires is much lower than the bandwidth of serial
wires. We all know by now that an increased bandwidth leads to a better bit rate. We also
know that less noise in the channel means we can successfully transmit data reliably with a
lower Signal-to-Noise Ratio, SNR. If, however, we bump up the power in a serial connection
by using a differential signal with 2 wires (one with a positive voltage, and one with a
negative voltage), we can use the same amount of power, have twice the SNR, and reach an
even higher bitrate without suffering the effects of noise. USB cables, for instance, use
shielded, differential serial communications, and the USB 2.0 standard is capable of data
transmission rates of 480Mbits/sec!

In addition, because of the increased potential for noise and interference, parallel wires need to
be far shorter than serial wires. Consider the standard parallel port wire to connect the PC to
a printer: those wires are between 3 and 4 feet long, and the longest commercially available
is typically 25 feet. Now consider Ethernet wires (which are serial, and typically unshielded
twisted pair): they can be bought in lengths of 100 feet, and a 300 foot run is not
uncommon!