Functions Of Expansion Slots
CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) is a chip on the motherboard that contains BIOS configuration, date, time and other information that the computer needs during startup. This is a video on Expansion slots & Cards. Offered by - Data Raj Academy Name of the trainer - Koka Venu - Modern motherboards are feature rich. They come with all the features that a normal.
- Functions Of Expansion Slots On The Motherboard
- Functions Of The Expansion Slots
- Function Of Expansion Slots
ISA Expansion Slots
The computer made before 1997, the motherboard has a few ISA, Industry Standard Architecture, expansion slots. They're easily recognizable because they are usually black and have two parts: one shorter and one longer. Computers made after 1997 generally include a few ISA slots for backward compatibility with old expansion cards.
PCI Expansion Slots
Most computers made today contain primarily PCI, Peripheral Component Interconnect, slots. They are easily recognizable because they are short (around 3 inches long) and usually white. PCI slots can usually be found in any computer that has a Pentium-class processor orhigher.
AGP Expansion Slots
AGP, Accelerated Graphics Port, slots are very popular for video card use. In the past, if you wanted to use a high-speed, accelerated 3D graphics video card, you had to install the card into an existing PCI or ISA slot. AGP slots were designed to be a direct connectionbetween the video circuitry and the PC's memory. It uses the northbridge bus so it is very fast. They are also easily recognizable because they are usually brown, are located right next to the PCI slots on the motherboard, and are shorter than the PCI slots.
PCIe Expansion Slots
PCIe X1
PCIe X4
PCIe X8 and 16
The newest expansion slot architecture that is being used by motherboards is PCI Express (PCIe). It was designed to be a replacement for AGP and PCI. It has the capability of being faster than AGP while maintaining the flexibility of PCI. It also uses the northbridge bus. And motherboards with PCIe will have regular PCI slots for backward compatibility with PCI.
There are seven different speed levels for PCIe, and they are designated 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, 12X, 16X, and 32X. These designations roughly correspond to similarly designated AGP speeds. The slots for PCIe are a bit harder to identify than other expansion slot types becausethe slot size corresponds to its speed. For example, the 1X slot is extremely short (less than an inch). The slots get longer in proportion to the speed; the longer the slot, the higher the speed. The reason for this stems from the PCIe concept of lanes, which are the multiplied units of communication between any two PCIe components and are directly related to physical wiring on the bus. Because all PCIe communications are made up of unidirectional coupling between devices, each PCIe card negotiates for the best mutually supported number of lanes with each communications partner.
AMR Expansion Slots
As is always the case, Intel and other manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to improve the production process. One lengthy process that would often slow down the production of motherboards with integrated analog I/O functions was FCC certification. The manufacturers developed a way of separating the analog circuitry, for example, modem and analog audio, onto its own card. This allowed the analog circuitry to be separately certified (it was its own expansion card), thus reducing time for FCC certification. This slot and riser card technology was known as the Audio Modem Riser, or AMR. AMR¡¯s 46-pin slots were once fairly common on many Intel motherboards, but technologies including CNR and Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) are edging out AMR. In addition and despite FCC concerns, integrated components still appear to be enjoying the most success comparatively.
CNR Expansion Slots
CNR, Communications and Networking Riser, slots that can be found on some Intel motherboards are a replacement for Intel's AMR slots. Essentially, these 60-pin slots allow a motherboard manufacturer to implement a motherboard chipset with certain integrated features. Then, if the built-in features of that chipset need to be enhanced (by adding Dolby Digital Surround to a standard sound chipset, for example), a CNR riser card could be added to enhance the onboard capabilities. Additional advantages of CNR over AMR include networking support, Plug and Play compatibility, support for hardware acceleration (as opposed to CPU control only), and no need to lose a competing PCI slot unless the CNR slot is in use.
SATA Expansion Slots
SATA is a new standard for connecting hard drives into computer systems. As its name implies, SATA is based on serial signaling technology, unlike current IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard drives that use parallel signaling.
SATA has several practical advantages over the parallel signaling (also called Parallel ATA or PATA) that has been used in hard drives since the 1980s. SATA cables are more flexible, thinner, and less massive than the ribbon cables required for conventional PATA hard drives. SATA cables can be considerably longer than PATA ribbon cables, allowing the designer more latitude in the physical layout of a system. Because there are fewer conductors (only 7 in SATA as compared with 40 in PATA), crosstalk and electromagnetic interference (EMI) are less likely to be troublesome. The signal voltage is much lower as well (250 mV for SATA as compared with 5 V for PATA).
SCSI Expansion Slots
SCSI, Small Computer Serial Interface, is a series of interface standards for disk drives and other peripherals, usually offering better performance than the IDE interface standard in PCs but with more complexity and at higher cost.
Summary :
This essay from MiniTool will introduce you with 20 major components of a motherboard together with their basic information including their functions.
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According to Wikipedia, a motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in common computers (both desktops and laptops) as well as other expandable systems. It is also known as a mainboard, main circuit board, system board, baseboard, logic board, planar board or mobo.
Motherboard Components and Their Functions
There are many components found in a motherboard. Some of them are major motherboard components while others are not. The following is a motherboard components list.
1. CPU (Central Processing Unit) chip
CPU is the electronic circuitry in a computer that executes instructions that make up a program. It is also known as a central processor or the main processor. The CPU executes the basic logic, arithmetic, controlling as well as input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions in the desktop programs.
2. RAM (Random Access Memory) slots
RAM is a kind of computer memory that can be read and written. It is mainly used to save data and machine code. A RAM device permits data to be read or written in nearly the same amount of time no matter where the data’s physical location is in the memory. Compared to the direct-access storage devices like hard drives, CD/DVD and magnetic tapes, RAM media is much faster for data reading and writing.
3. Southbridge/northbridge
They are the two chips in the core logic chipset on the motherboard. Typically, the southbridge implements the slower capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture.
The northbridge, also known as host bridge or Memory Controller Hub, is connected directly to the CPU via the front-side bus (FSB). It is responsible for tasks requiring the highest performance. Together with the southbridge, they manage communications between the CPU and other motherboard components.
4. BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
BIOS, also called system BIOS, PC BIOS or ROM BIOS, is firmware that is used to perform hardware initialization during the booting process; and to provide runtime services for operating system and programs. The BIOS firmware is the first software to run when powered on; it is re-installed on a PC’s system board.
5. I/O port
Input/output ports are the connections between the CPU and peripheral devices on a motherboard. There are two complementary methods to perform input and output processes: memory-mapped I/O (MMIO) and port-mapped I/O (PMIO). Alternatively, you can use dedicated I/O processors, called channels on mainframe computers, which execute their own instructions.
6. USB (Universal Serial Bus)
USB is an industry standard that creates specifications for connectors, cables and protocols for connection; power supply (interfacing) and communication among computers, computer peripherals as well as other desktops. There are a great many USB hardware including several different connectors, of which USB-C is the latest kind.
7. CPU slot
A CPU slot, also called a CPU socket or Processor socket, contains one or more mechanical components that provide mechanical and electrical connections between the PCB and a microprocessor (CPU). Therefore, you can install a CPU on a motherboard without soldering.
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Functions Of Expansion Slots On The Motherboard
8. PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot
Peripheral Component Interconnect is a local computer bus for connecting hardware to a computer. It supports all the functions of a processor bus. PCI is usually been called Conventional PCI to distinguish it from its successor PCI Express (PCIe, PCI-e or PCI-E).
PCI Express is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standard. It is a general-use motherboard interface for the graphics card, SSDs, hard drives, Wi-Fi as well as Ethernet hardware connections.
This post tells you the differences between PCI and PCIe. It also shows you how to distinguish them.
9. AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot
AGP was designed as a high-speed point-to-point channel for connecting a video card (graphics card) to a computer system. Primarily, it was used to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. AGP is originally designed to be a descendant of the PCI series of connections for video cards. Yet, it was replaced by the PCIe slots.
10. ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) slot
ISA is the 16-bit internal bus of IMB PC/AT and similar computers that are based on Intel 80286 and its immediate successors during the 1980s. It was backward compatible with the 8-bit bus of the 8088-based IBM PC largely.
There once was an attempt to extend ISA into a 32-bit bus, called Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA). The attempt wasn’t very successful and the EISA was largely replaced by the later VESA Local Bus and the PCI bus.
11. Parallel port
A parallel port is a kind of interface for attaching peripherals on desktops. The name of this kind of port is derived from the way the data is sent. That is, the parallel ports send multiple bits of data at the same time. Serial interfaces, on the contrary, send bits one data at once. To achieve parallel data transfer, there are multiple data lines in the parallel port cables. The parallel port cable is larger than the cable of a contemporary serial port, which only has one data line within.
12. FDC (Floppy-Disk Controller)
FDC is a special-purpose chip and associated disk controller circuitry. It controls and directs reading from and writing to a computer’s floppy disk drive (FDD).
13. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) controller
The devices used for connecting IDE, Ethernet, FireWire, USB and other systems can be called host adapter. So, the IDE controller refers to the host adapter. A host adapter, also called a host controller or a host bus adapter (HBA), connects a computer (acting as the host system) to other network and storage devices.
Do you think your IDE hard drive is too old and outdated? How to upgrade IDE to SATA HDD or SSD? There is a step-by-step tutorial to help you.
14. CMOS (Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor) battery
CMOS battery, also called memory battery, clock battery or real-time clock (RTC), is generally a CR2032 lithium coin cell. The lifespan of the CMOS battery is estimated to be three years when the power supply unit (PSU) is unplugged or switch off.
15. Power supply connector
A power supply provides the necessary electrical power to let the computer to work. It takes standard 110-Volt AC (Alternative Current) power to DC (Direct Current) power of 12 Volt, 5 Volt, 3.3 Volt, etc.
16. Mouse and keyboard ports
All computers have a keyboard port connected directly to the motherboard. There are two types of connectors. The oldest one is a special DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) connector while the newest one is the mini DIN PS/2-style connector. Many PCs use the PS/2-style connectors for both keyboard and mouse; and the connectors are marked clearly for different usage.
17. DIP (Dual In-line Package) switch
A DIP switch is a manual electric switch packaged with others in a standard dual in-line package. The term may refer to an individual switch or the whole unit. The DIP switch is designed to be used on a printed circuit board (motherboard) together with other electronic motherboard components. It is usually used to customize the behavior of an electronic device for specific situations.
18. Jumper
A jumper is a short length of conductor that is used to close, open or bypass part of an electronic circuit. Typically, jumpers are used to set up or configure printed circuit boards like the motherboard.
19. Heat sink/heatsink (cooling system)
A heat sink is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by parts of motherboard into a fluid medium like liquid or air. The fluid medium will dissipate away from the device. Thus, the temperature of the device is kept within a tolerable range. On the motherboard, the heatsink is usually used to cool CPU, GPU (graphics processing unit), chipsets and RAM modules.
20. Clock generator
A clock generator is an electronic oscillator (circuit) that produces a clock signal for usage in synchronizing a circuit’s operation. The clock signal ranges between high and low frequencies, thus creating a metronome for the coordination of actions.
Functions Of The Expansion Slots
What Are the Two Main Components on the Motherboard?
Function Of Expansion Slots
After reading the above contents, you can figure out that the two main components on the motherboard are CPU and RAM. They also list in the first two locations in the above. Actually, the above motherboard components are listed mainly based on their importance on the motherboard. Yet, that is just our personal opinion. Those components’ importance is different in different situations.