Monday, October 19, 2009

Motherboards


By Craig Stephenson

The motherboard is the computer backbone providing electrical connections and allowing communication through all components of the computer. The motherboard houses the central processing unit, or CPU. All electrical devices present on a computer system, including peripheral devices, are routed through the motherboard. The word ?motherboard? usually implies a computer motherboard, but these boards are also present in cell phones, stopwatches, and many other electronic devices. The components of computer motherboards are: 1. a clock generator 2. power connectors 3. input device connectors and expansion slots 4. CPU slots 5. main memory slots 6. Chipset interface 7. non-volatile memory chips

The computer microprocessor is housed on the motherboard. Sometimes the motherboard contains more than one processor. The CPU is the area of the computer where programs are executed. The CPU is sometimes referred to as the brain of the computer.

Motherboards contain the sockets for the system?s main memory, usually comprised of dual inline memory modules. These are also called DIMM modules. They contain dynamic random access memory chips. These are also known as DRAM chips.

Integrated circuits that interface main memory with peripheral buses are called chipsets and these are present on motherboards as well. These chipsets can be referred to as the Northbridge and Southbridge. The Northbridge being responsible for high speed devices and the Southbridge being responsible for low speed devices. The performance of the computer is related to the speed of the motherboard chipset.

A chipset comprised of integrated circuits, which service to connect the main memory with the peripheral buses, is located on the motherboard. This chipset is often separated into two sections the Northbridge and the Southbridge. The Northbridge is far better known as it controls high-speed devices. The lesser-known Southbridge controls low-speed devices, such as sound chips.

Motherboards contain a clock generator. This clock generator is a circuit with the basic operation of producing a signal for synchronizing the computer. Some people who are well skilled at computers change the clock generator to control speed of the central processing unit and random access memory.

Another component of motherboards is the expansion slots, also called sockets. These expansion slots are where expansion cards can be plugged in to expand the functions of the computer. Graphics cards, sound cards and input/output devices are just a few of the devices that can be added using these expansion slots.

Motherboards contain components known as power connector flickers. These flickers take power from the main supply and dispense power throughout the computer. These flickers provide power to the CPU, chipsets, main memory, and expansion cards.

In addition to power problems, some other signs your motherboard components have stopped working properly are: 1. you computer stopped doing anything 2. the sound of one long beep followed by 3 short ones 3. inaccurate time on the computer clock 4. warning message about the DMA, CMOS battery, or RAM 5. the power light is on, but the computer will not power on, or start up

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