Engineering and fabrication
What are the components of a computer motherboard and how do they work?
How does the processor make use of these components to achieve the services required of the computer (Accept data, process and give out an output)?
Public Comments
- The motherboard of a typical desktop consists of a large PCB. It holds electronic components and interconnects, as well as physical connectors (sockets, slots, and headers) into which other computer components may be inserted or attached.
Most motherboards include, at a minimum:
sockets in which one or more CPUs are installed[2]
slots into which the system's main memory is installed (typically in the form of DIMM modules containing DRAM chips)
a chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's front-side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses
non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern motherboards) containing the system's firmware or BIOS
a clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various components
slots for expansion cards (these interface to the system via the buses supported by the chipset)
power connectors which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and distribute it to other components[3]
The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993[1]. This board has 5 ISA slots but few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the lack of external connectors.Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly-used input devices, such as PS/2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard. Early personal computers such as the Apple II or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards.
Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heatsinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat.
[edit] Integrated peripherals
Diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots.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.
For example, the ECS RS485M-M, a typical modern budget motherboard for computers based on AMD processors, has on-board support for a very large range of peripherals:
disk controllers for a floppy disk drive, up to 2 IDE/PATA drives, and up to 4 SATA drives (including RAID 0/1 support)
integrated ATI Radeon graphics controller supporting 2D and 3D graphics, with VGA and TV output
integrated sound card supporting 6-channel audio and SPDIF output
fast Ethernet network controller for 10/100 Mbps networking
USB 2.0 controller supporting up to 8 USB ports
IrDA controller for infrared communications (e.g. with a handheld remote control)
temperature, voltage, and fan-speed sensors that allow software to monitor the health of computer components
Expansion cards to support all of these functions would have cost hundreds of dollars even a decade ago, however as of April 2007 such highly-integrated motherboards are available for as little as $30 in the USA.
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- The answer to this question can actually fills books, as you are talking about the architecture of Data Processing Machines...
However, in brief, the processor is attached by pins to the motherboard, which contains the resources like RAM and connections to the secondary memory and other devices.
The process starts when you boot up the system. The machine wakes up and starts loading BIOS, stored in a special chip called CMOS. The BIOS initializes the basic devices, such as Keyboard, Screen, Drives, Ports etc. and then searches for the Operating System at a particular location (usually the boot sector of your hard drive). The drive starts rotating and loading the code in RAM, and executing instructions. When the process completes, you have a boot up PC.
On the hardware side, its all about current and voltages. The processor can only distinguish if a particular voltage is present in a particular wire or not. That forms the basis of the binary nature of system.
The processor reads the memory through the connectors to the mother board, by sending signal to the RAM and recieving the response. In that response, it can distinguish which pins are active passing current and which are dormant. As we know that computers use 8 such on and off signals to form one number, each of these on and off conditions are called bits, and the collection of 8 bits is a byte.
So, when processor recieves one byte, it can know if this byte is a peice of CODE that is an executeable instruction or a peice of DATA. And this it knows because CODE and DATA are loaded in separate parts of RAM.
If its a peice of CODE the processor executes it, i.e. passing it through it circuitary to peform the logical operation required, or in some cases, executing multiple instructions in the response, which are called Micro Code that is programed in the processor.
I know it s kinda complex, but that s how it works.
- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/motherboard.htm
- take a look in www.howstuffworks.com
