COMPTIA A+ Chapter 6: Motherboards

A printed circuit board (PCB) containing the principal components of a computer or other device, with connectors into which other circuit boards can be slotted. Sometimes called a Logic Board

motherboard

Standard for the physical organization of motherboard components and motherboard size. Most common are ATX, microATX, and Mini-ITX

Form Factor

Electronic chips, specially designed to work together, that handle all of the low-level functions of a PC

chipset

Model name of the second-generation, 80286-based IBM computer

Many aspects of this motherboard form factor, such as the BIOS, CMOS, and expansion bus, have become de facto standards in the PC industry.

Most common motherboard form factors are derived from this form factor

AT (Advanced Technology)

The most common form factor for PC systems presently in use, originally introduced by Intel in 1995. These motherboards and cases make better use of space and resources than did the earlier AT form factor.

ATX (Advanced Technology Extended)

Connection between computer and external devices, mouse, printers

external ports

Connection on motherboard to power CPU fan and monitor speed

CPU fan power

The standard analog video port on computers manufactured before 2009

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)

An expansion card standard. It has largely been replaced by PCIe but is still used in some systems today.

An expansion card standard. It has largely been replaced by PCIe but is still used in some systems today

A type of motherboard memory that allows updates by disk or by downloading Internet files.

Flash BIOS

The battery on the motherboard used to power the CMOS chip when the computer is unplugged

CMOS battery

A group of wires running from the front of the computer case to the motherboard

Front Panel Connectors

A switch that is connected to the motherboard that allows you to configure the electric circuits located on the board.

DIP Switches

A term that signifies two IDE connectors (four devices) and support of the ATAPI standard.

EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics)

Motherboard form factor designed to work in standard ATX cases but with a smaller footprint

microATX

A family of motherboard form factors used in smaller systems, such as the home theater PC. Lower-power usage design.

ITX

A form factor designed to minimize the volume of a desktop computer

SFF (Small Form Factor)

The largest and the most popular of the three ITX form factors. At a miniscule 6.7 by 6.7 inches, Mini-ITX competes with microATX and proprietary small form factor (SFF) motherboards.

Mini-ITX

A 4.7 inch by 4.7 inch variation of the ITX form factor.

Nano-ITX

Smaller than Nano, this motherboard form factor has no expansion slots and is about the size of a deck of cards.

Pico-ITX

Form factors that are made specifically by companies and are not the same as the other boards on the market

Proprietary Form Factors

A card that plugs into a motherboard and allows for expansion cards to be mounted parallel to the motherboard. Expansion cards are plugged into slots on this card.

Riser Card

Chip specially designed to control low-speed, legacy devices such as the keyboard, mouse, and serial and parallel ports.

Super I/O Chip

Method for creating a fault-tolerant storage system. Uses multiple hard drives in various configurations to offer differing levels of speed/data redundancy.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent or \n Inexpensive Disks)

RAID: Stores duplicate data on a second drive. Slow, but has data redundancy.

Mirroring (RAID)

RAID: Writes data across multiple drives. Fast, but no data redundancy.

Striping (RAID)

An early enhancement for PCI primarily used on servers. Most systems use PCIe instead. PCIe and PCI-X are sometimes confused, but there are significant differences between the two.

PCI-X (peripheral component interconnect extended)

Set of wires going to the CPU, governed by the expansion bus crystal, directly connected to expansion slots of varying types (PCI, AGP, PCIe, etc.)

Expansion Bus

Specialized form of PCI designed for use in laptops.

Mini-PCI

Serialized successor to PCI and AGP that uses the concept of individual data paths called lanes. May use any number of lanes, although a single lane (x1) and 16 lanes (x16) are the most common on motherboards.

PCIe (PCI Express)

The speed with which data, instructions, and information transfer to and from a device.

Transfer Rate

Set of rules that govern how a computer translates characters, numbers, and symbols into data the computer can actually work with

Encoding Scheme

Four Steps for Installing Expansion Cards

Knowledge, Physical Installation, Device Drivers, and Verification

Microsoft's rigorous testing program for hardware manufacturers, which hardware devices must pass before their drivers can be digitally signed

Windows Hardware Certification Program

Driver that has not gone through the Windows Certification Program to ensure compatibility.

unsigned driver

An option in Windows that allows you to restore a previously used driver after a driver has been upgraded. This option provides an easy mechanism for restoring a driver if the upgraded driver does not work properly.

Driver Rollback

Add Hardware Wizard in Vista/7/8/8.1

hdwwiz.exe

Mounts for screwing a motherboard to a case.

Mounts for screwing a motherboard to a case

Wires etched on to the motherboard to provide electrical pathways

Traces

A single board composed of nonconductive material with copper traces etched onto it and coated with epoxy for strength. Modern motherboards are composed of multiple layers of these boards.

PCB (Printed Circuit Board)