And its Form Factors

Motherboard
A motherboard is the
main printed circuit
board in a computer.
The motherboard is a
computer’s central
communications
backbone connectivity
point, through which all
components and
external peripherals
connect.It is also known
as “Mainboard” or
“Mobo”.
AT[Advance technology]
 -In the early days of the computer, the AT and baby AT
form factors were the most common motherboard
form factors. These two variants differ primarily in
width: the older full AT board is 12" wide. It is an
obsolete motherboard form factor only found in older
machines, 386 class or earlier. One of the major
problems with the width of this board (aside from
limiting its use in smaller cases) is that a good
percentage of the board "overlaps" with the drive bays.
This makes installation, troubleshooting and
upgrading more difficult.
ATX[Advance Technology Extended]
 is a motherboard and power supply configuration specification
developed by Intel in 1995 to improve on previous de
facto standards like the AT design. It was the first major change
in desktop computer enclosure, motherboard and power
supply design in many years, improving standardization and
interchangeability of parts. The specification defines the key
mechanical dimensions, mounting point, I/O panel, power and
connector interfaces between a computer case,
a motherboard and a power supply.
Mini-ATX
 is a name used for various motherboard form factors,
mainly a 15 × 15 cm (or 5.9 × 5.9 inches) size developed
by AOpen Inc.. This Mini-ATX definition is slightly
smaller than Mini-ITX. There is no single widely
accepted form factor by this name. Mini-ATX
motherboards were designed with MoDT (Mobile on
Desktop Technology) which adapt mobile CPUs for
lower power requirements and less heat generation,
which may be beneficial for home theater PCs(HTPC),
in-car PCs, or industrial use.
Micro ATX
 This form factor was developed as a natural evolution of
the ATX form factor to address new market trends and PC
technologies. MicroATX supports:
• Current processor technologies
• The transition to newer processor technologies
• AGP high-performance graphics solutions
• Smaller motherboard size • Smaller power supply form
factor
LPX[Low Profile Extended]
 The LPX motherboard form factors are designed to be
used in small Slimline or "low profile" cases typically
found on low profile desktop systems. The primary
design goal behind the LPX form factor is reducing
space usage (and cost).
BTX[Balance Technology Extended]
 It was designed to alleviate some of the issues that
arose from using newer technologies (which often
demand more power and create more heat) on
motherboards compliant with the circa 1996 ATX
specification. The ATX and BTX standards were both
proposed by Intel. However, future development of
BTX retail products by Intel was canceled in
September 2006 following Intel's decision to refocus
on low-power CPUs after suffering scaling and thermal
issues with the Pentium 4.
Mini-ITX
 is a 17 × 17 cm (6.7 × 6.7 in) motherboard, developed
by VIA Technologies in 2001.[1] They are commonly
used in small-configured computer systems.
Originally, they were a niche product, designed for
fan-less cooling with a low power consumption
architecture, which made them useful for home
theater PC systems, where fan noise can detract from
the cinema experience.
Nano-ITX
 measure 12 × 12 cm (4.7 × 4.7 in), and are fully
integrated, very low power consumption
motherboards with many uses, but targeted at smart
digital entertainment devices such as PVRs, set-top
boxes, media centers, car PCs, and thin devices.
Pico ITX
 The Pico-ITX form factor specifications call for the
board to be 10 × 7.2 cm (3.9 × 2.8 in), which is half the
area of Nano-ITX. The processor can be a VIA C7, a
VIA Eden V4, a VIA Nano or any other that uses VIA's
NanoBGA2 technology for speeds up to 1.5 GHz, with
128KB L1 & L2 caches. It uses DDR2 400/533 SO-
DIMM memory, with support for up to 1GB.
Mobile ITX
 Is the smallest (by 2009) x86 compliant motherboard
form factor presented by VIA Technologies in
December, 2009. The motherboard size (CPU module)
is 60 × 60 mm (2.4 × 2.4 in).[1] There are no computer
ports on the CPU module and it is necessary to use an
I/O carrier board.