Motherboards

Motherboard

Motherboard AKA: Mainboard System board

What is the Motherboard?The main circuit board which holds and connect all main components of a computer systemMother of all components

Motherboard Diagram

Motherboard Diagram: Morehttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Motherboard_diagram.svg

Do not break your neck ;) Just click on and visit the link!...

BusIn computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers

Internal bus AKA: local bus, internal data bus, memory bus, system bus or Front-Side-BusConnects all major internal components of a computer (CPU and Memory)Quick and Faster

AKA: Expansion busConnects external devices (Most Input/Output Devices, USB, etc)External bus

FSB (Front Side Bus)System Bus of Intel-chip-based Motherboardshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_busFSB performance can be measured by FSB Frequency (MHz), Transfers/Cycle, Bus Width and Transfer Rate (MB/sec)

FSB Transfer Rateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus#Transfer_rates

Related component speedsCPURAM

EvolutionMore modern designs use point-to-point connections like AMD's HyperTransport and Intel's QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). These implementations remove the traditional northbridge in favor of a direct link from the CPU to the southbridge or I/O controllerTherefore FSB is no longer used and replaced by DMI

ChipsetA chipset or PC chipset refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together usually marketed as a single product.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipset

Well known Chipset vendorsIntel, AMD, VIA, nVidia

More linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets#Core_i_Series_chipsets

Traditionally chipsets had two major chips called Northbridge and Southbridge

NorthbridgeNorthbridge typically handles communications among the CPU, in some cases RAM, and Display controller (PCI Express or AGP) and the SouthbridgeThe high-speed part of a chipset and interconnects the CPU to memory via FSB

EvolutionWith the AMD Athlon64 series CPU's, a new architecture was used where some functions of the north and south bridge chips were moved to the CPU. Intel followed suit with their Core i series CPU'sDue to the push for System-on-a-chip (SoC) processors modern devices increasingly have the northbridge integrated into the CPU die itselfFor Intel Sandy Bridge and AMD Accelerated Processing Unit processors introduced in 2011, all of the functions of northbridge reside on the CPU

SouthbridgeThe southbridge typically implements the slower capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. Handles most input/output devicesSouthbridge communicates with CPU via Northbridge

EvolutionAs modern computers does not contain a Northbridge, nowadays Southbridge communicates with CPU directlyIn Intel chipset systems, the southbridge is named Input/output Controller Hub (ICH). In AMD systems it is named as Fusion Controller Hub (FCH)

A newer Motherboard (Core iX 3rd Gen) [NO Northbridge]

A newer Chipset [NO Northbridge]. Intel Z77

Difference between FSB and DMIFSBDMI

BIOSBasic Input/Output SystemBIOS contents is stored on anEEPROM chip BIOS selects candidate boot devices using information collected by POST and configuration information from EEPROM, CMOS RAM

BIOS, a set of computer instructions in firmware that control input and output operationsBIOS provides a way for programs and operating systems to interact with input/output devices. Variations in the system hardware are hidden by the BIOS from programs that use BIOS services instead of directly accessing the hardwareBIOS Manufacturers AMI, Award, Phoenix.. Etc.

A BIOS settings menu

UEFIUnified Extensible Firmware InterfaceSuccessor of EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)UEFI is meant to replace BIOS firmware interfaceBut in practice most (all!), most UEFI images provide legacy support for BIOS services

UEFI

OS SupportMost newer OS support UEFI(Windows 8, Newer Linux Distributions etc.) OS like Windows 7 support EFI, but not UEFI

UEFI BIOS

Form FactorForm Factor decides many things such as Casing Size and Power supply type of a motherboard

CPU SocketCPU socket plays an important role in Motherboards as it limit the CPU supportMore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_socket

RAM TypeRAM type also importantNormally a motherboard support only single type of RAM (DDR2, DDR3)

Expansion Slots +PCIe and PCI slotsSATA, IDE portsUSB portsOther

Referenceshttps://duckduckgo.com/?q=Computer+Motherboardshttps://www.google.com/search?q=Motherboard

Thank You!Ayubowan!