Alien Motherboard Terms , Beam me up Scotty!!!!(EDIT)
Dec 02 '00 (Updated Dec 04 '00)
INTRO:
I am sure as those of you who find interest in computer motherboards are aware , that the word "motherboard" comes associated with multiple specs and terms that are very indecipherable to the average user. This can cause extreme frustration in those attempting to understand them and even cause many to veer far from there paths as possible. It can however also cause someone building a computer to become confused and possibly make an incorrect setting. In some cases this may not result in anything more than the computer not operating. In others it could result in permanent damage to another interior and possibly more costly component.
Now that I have scared away all those who were even a little squeamish about motherboards I will try to assist in translating these apparently foreign terms for you. Motherboards are for the most part the heart of your PC (personal computer). Although some may argue that the CPU (central processing unit) is the heart. My reasoning behind this is that although you may have a CPU it cannot function by itself , without the mother board all other components you add to the mix are useless and unusable. The motherboard much like your own heart drives all other aspects of the computer the CPU acts more like lungs allowing for life to be maintained within your PC's case.
MOTHERBOARD CPU SLOTS:
Motherboards once again come in many varieties and are strictly dependent on your own personal needs. However one major decision that has to be made before you consider a motherboard is what CPU you are going to use. Motherboards are built CPU specific as all CPU's are not the same either. The motherboard houses either a socket or a slot to accept your specific CPU. A socket is an adapter placed on all motherboards to allow for proper placement of your CPU. A socket accepts a CPU that has a pin style connection. Meaning that the CPU has multiple pins extruding from it that plug into the holes on the socket. These socket style connectors are used in AMD K6-2 , and K6-3 applications as well as Intel Pentium 1 and Pro styles applications , including the new AMD Thunderbird processors and Pentium 4's. A slot configuration is set up to accept newer style AMD Athlons and Intel Pentium II and III chips. These chips are built within a cartridge and the whole cartridge is basically plugged directly into the motherboard slot. *NOTE* not all slots and sockets are the same and once again are dependent on the CPU being used.
MOTHERBOARD ISA & PCI SLOTS:
However motherboard slot's do not end with the CPU. There are multiple slots on all motherboards consisting of ISA and PCI slots. These slots are used to except your expansion cards which would consist on modems , video cards , sound cards and the like. ISA slots although still in existence have decreased significantly in numbers , due to the wide spread use of PCI slots in there place. ISA slots are quite large and stand for Industry Standard Architecture. Commonly ISA slots are equipped with 8 or 16 bit (binary digit, smallest amount of information a computer can hold) bus speeds. I will go into " BUS " in more detail later. PCI slots there are significantly smaller than its counter parts. PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Run at 33mhz and support Microsoft's plug and play feature. The PCI slots tend to run a little bit faster than that of an ISA slot. PCI have taken over for the most part due to the decrease in size allowing for the overall size of motherboards to be reduced as well.
MOTHERBOARD BUS:
Bus is simply put a set of conductors (brass looking lines on motherboard) that connect the functional units in a computer. Bus is the path that signals have to take to get to there desired location. Bus travels to all destinations in a computer and allows for communication between the internal components. Motherboards also have what is known as "local bus" , this allows for a fast data path connecting the CPU , memory and peripherals. Local bus was designed to run at the same speed as the CPU to allow for better through put between components. Bus if you will is like the roads you take to go to work. It is used to get data to another point within the computer , much like the way you take the same exact roads every day to reach your final destination. Think if your car (the data) on a road (the bus) driving to work.
MOTHERBOARD UDMA AND ATAPI:
Another aspect of motherboards is the fact that they have what is commonly refereed to as UDMA ports (Ultra Direct Memory Access). These ports are used to hook up your hard drive and CD-Rom type drives. Most mother boards have at least two of these ports allowing for support of up to 4 ATAPI (Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface) devices. ATAPI is basically the connector attachment used to connect to hard drive and CD-ROM type devices. UDMA comes in both 33 and 66 MHz formats allowing for faster data transfer. UDMA supports EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) type devices. EIDE is basically once again a reference for the type of connection used.
MOTHERBOARD BIOS & CHIPSET:
Another term that is slung around heavily in the computer world is BIOS (Basic Input/output System). This is a chip that has a set of instructions permanently stored on ROM (Read only Memory) which handles all input/output functions of your PC. BIOS if you will is like the motherboards brain it works in conjunction with the mother boards chipset to carry out the tasks being requested of it. The chipset which once again is dependent on the CPU being used as different CPU's require different commands to be processed. The chipset is used to allow the mother board to support certain processors as well as many other aspects within a PC. The chipset allows for how much system Ram (Random Access Memory) the motherboard can contain as well as the commands and support needed for UDMA 33/66 , USB (Universal Serial Bus) , and AGP support. The chipset basically tells the motherboard how to function dependent on the component it is using.
MOTHERBOARD RAM:
System Ram again has its own socket in place on the motherboard to support specific types of Ram. The most commonly used is the DIMM ( Dual Inline Memory Module) which consists of 168-pin socket. However recently new types of Ram are being introduced such as RAMBUS(RDRAM). The DIMM sockets tend to currently support RAM in the format of PC100 or PC133. The acronyms basically stand for the operating speed of the Ram 100mhz and 133 respectively. Again as technology advances however there has been a recent addition of PC150. On that note there has also been an introduction of DDR (double data rate)-SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) into the system end of PC's. SDRAM is capable of transferring data at 100mb/sec and comes in 64bit bandwidth. DDR has been used previously in graphics cards and has filtered into the system memory slot. The DDR SDRAM design can effectively double the speed of operation up to at least 200MHz. So in a world where speed appears to be the be all end all I am sure you can see where this can make a significant impact. Please not however that this form of SDRAM has not as of yet exactly caught on as system memory and is till mostly being used in graphic cards.
MOTHERBOARD POWERSUPPLY ADAPTERS:
Another key aspect to motherboards that is strictly dependent on your cases power supply is the type of power connector it uses (form factor). There are currently two basic form factors available being AT and ATX. The AT (Advanced Technology) type of power supply consisted of two separate connectors that hooked into the motherboard to supply power to the components. The design of the power supply was such that it was supposed to pull air through the chassis to aide in cooling. ATX (Advanced technology Extension) on the other hand used one solid connector to plug into the mother board and was designed to blow air onto the processor directly rather than through the case. This allowed for more space on the motherboard to add more expansion slots etc. The ATX power supply also supports complete shut down of the computer. In other words when you hit start/shut down in windows , the system backs out of windows and literally powers off the computer. This was not supported by the AT format. Once again your power supply will determine which form factor you will need on your motherboard.
EXTERNAL MOTHERBOARD PORTS:
Other aspects to be considered about a motherboard in tail such things as USB ports, PS/2 ports , LPT ports , Serial Ports , and Parallel ports. These are all ports that are external on the PC case that allow for hook up of peripherals. The USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports can be used to hook up multiple types of devices ranging from mice to external modems and storage drives. USB happens to be the most recent addition to the port connections and happens to operate at the highest transfer rate. USB has a total bandwidth of 1.5 megabytes/sec. USB ports can be used to network two computer together as well. The PS/2 port is used to hook up either a mouse or a keyboard , it has a small round 6pin connector on the end of it. The LPT (Line Print Terminal) is the port used to hook your printer up to , although it can be used for scanner, digital cameras, or external storage drives such as a ZIP drive. The Serial port has multiple uses and consists on a connector with 9 to 25 pins(male connector). Most commonly it is used to connect a keyboard or mouse but has other uses such as a serial printer , or scanner. The serial port is sometimes used to network two computer together. This however is very slow as Serial ports only send one bit of data at a time. Parallel ports have 25 holes(female connector) as opposed to pins, the device being plugged into it will have a male connector on it. Parallel ports send 8bits of data at a time across them making them faster than Serial. However Serial ports tend to be more reliable in this area. Do to this fact and the introduction of USB the parallel port and serial have lost there popularity and are less commonly used.
CONCLUSION:
Many of the Specs involved with motherboards can and will play major factors in the components that can be plugged into them when building your own computer. As all motherboards tend to act like a traffic cop determining what components can be used in conjunction with it. Motherboards can also play a major role in overall system performance , depending on configuration and chipset features. Understanding the key aspects of each individual motherboard will allow for you to make the appropriate choice either in a motherboard or component selection. It is important that you associate the motherboard and components together as a whole and not as individual factors , one cannot work without the other. By not understanding motherboard specs it is feasible that you may have components that are either not working properly to their full potential or cause the whole system to be in operational. In some cases improper installation due to lack of understanding can also potentially cause permanent damage to hardware components. Make sure you read the owners manuals and check on anything you do not understand before applying power to your new build. With this good luck in learning and understanding motherboards as well as successful completion of a new system.
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***** GR8FUL AND STEVELARRISON *****
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