EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

Motherboard
A motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in some complex electronic
systems, such as modern personal computers. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively
known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple computers, the logic board. It is also
sometimes casually shortened to mobo.

Most computer motherboards produced today are designed for IBM-compatible computers,
which currently account for around 90% of global PC sales. A motherboard, like a backplane,
provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system
communicate, but unlike a backplane, it also hosts the central processing unit, and other
subsystems and devices.Motherboards are also used in many other electronics devices.
A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory, and other essential
components on the motherboard. Other components such as external storage, controllers for
video display and sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-
in cards or via cables, although in modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate
some of these peripherals into the motherboard itself.
An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's supporting chipset, which
provides the supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various buses and external
components. This chipset determines, to an extent, the features and capabilities of the
motherboard.
Modern motherboards include, at a minimum:
• sockets (or slots) in which one or more microprocessors are installed.
• 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 flickers, which receive electrical power from the computer power
supply and distribute it to the CPU, chipset, main memory, and expansion cards
• 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. Occasionally video interface hardware was
also integrated into the motherboard; for example on the Apple II, and rarely on IBM-
compatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk
controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

• 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.
Integrated Peripherals
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 PATA drives, and up to 6 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 8-channel (7.1) audio and S/PDIF output
• fast Ethernet network controller for 10/100 Mbit networking
• USB 2.0 controller supporting up to 12 USB ports
• IrDA controller for infrared data communication (e.g. with an IrDA enabled Cellular
Phone or Printer)
• 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[update] such highly-integrated motherboards are
available for as little as $30 in the USA.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

Peripheral card slots

A typical motherboard of 2007 will have a different number of connections depending on its
standard. A standard ATX motherboard will typically have 1x PCI-E 16x connection for a
graphics card, 2x PCI slots for various expansion cards and 1x PCI-E 1x which will
eventually supersede PCI.
A standard Super ATX motherboard will have 1x PCI-E 16x connection for a graphics card.
It will also have a varying number of PCI and PCI-E 1x slots. It can sometimes also have a
PCI-E 4x slot. This varies between brands and models.
Some motherboards have 2x PCI-E 16x slots, to allow more than 2 monitors without special
hardware or to allow use of a special graphics technology called SLI (for Nvidia) and
Crossfire (for ATI). These allow 2 graphics cards to be linked together, to allow better
performance in intensive graphical computing tasks, such as gaming and video-editing.
As of 2007[update], virtually all motherboards come with at least 4x USB ports on the rear,
with at least 2 connections on the board internally for wiring additional front ports that are
built into the computer's case. Ethernet is also included now. This is a standard networking
cable for connecting the computer to a network or a modem. A sound chip is always included
on the motherboard, to allow sound to be output without the need for any extra components.
This allows computers to be far more multimedia-based than before. Cheaper machines now
often have their graphics chip built into the motherboard rather than a separate card.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

Temperature and reliability

Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such
as the northbridge, in modern motherboards. If the motherboard is not cooled properly, then
this can cause its computer to crash. Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power
supply, was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s; since then, most
have required CPU fans mounted on their heatsinks, due to rising clock speeds and power
consumption. Most motherboards have connectors for additional case fans as well. Newer
motherboards have integrated temperature sensors to detect motherboard and CPU
temperatures, and controllable fan connectors which the BIOS or operating system can use to
regulate fan speed. Some higher-powered computers (which typically have high-performance
processors and large amounts of RAM, as well as high-performance video cards) use a water-
cooling system instead of many fans.
Some small form factor computers and home theater PCs designed for quiet and energy-
efficient operation boast fan-less designs. This typically requires the use of a low-power CPU,
as well as careful layout of the motherboard and other components to allow for heat sink
placement.
A 2003 study found that some spurious computer crashes and general reliability issues,
ranging from screen image distortions to I/O read/write errors, can be attributed not to
software or peripheral hardware but to aging capacitors on PC motherboards. Ultimately this
was shown to be the result of a faulty electrolyte formulation.
Motherboards use electrolytic capacitors to filter the DC power distributed around the
board. These capacitors age at a temperature-dependent rate, as their water based electrolytes
slowly evaporate. This can lead to loss of capacitance and subsequent motherboard
malfunctions due to voltage instabilities. While most capacitors are rated for 2000 hours of
operation at 105 °C, their expected design life roughly doubles for every 10 °C below this. At
45 °C a lifetime of 15 years can be expected. This appears reasonable for a computer
motherboard, however many manufacturers have delivered substandard capacitors, which
significantly reduce life expectancy. Inadequate case cooling and elevated temperatures easily
exacerbate this problem. It is possible, but tedious and time-consuming, to find and replace
failed capacitors on PC motherboards; it is less expensive to buy a new motherboard than to
pay for such a repair.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

Form factor
Motherboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes ("form factors"), some of which
are specific to individual computer manufacturers. However, the motherboards used in IBM-
compatible commodity computers have been standardized to fit various case sizes. As of
2007[update], most desktop computer motherboards use one of these standard form factors—
even those found in Macintosh and Sun computers which have not traditionally been built
from commodity components.
Laptop computers generally use highly integrated, miniaturized, and customized
motherboards. This is one of the reasons that laptop computers are difficult to upgrade and
expensive to repair. Often the failure of one laptop component requires the replacement of the
entire motherboard, which is usually more expensive than a desktop motherboard due to the
large number of integrated components.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

microATX form factor motherboard

Nvidia SLI and ATI Crossfire

Nvidia SLI and ATI Crossfire technology allows 2 or more of the same series graphics
cards to be linked together to allow a faster graphics experience. Almost all medium to high
end Nvidia cards and most high end ATI cards support the technology.
They both require compatible motherboards. There is an obvious need for 2x PCI-E 16x
slots to allow 2 cards to be inserted into the computer. The same function can be achieved in
650i motherboards by NVIDIA, with a pair of x8 slots. Originally, tri-Crossfire was achieved
at 8x speeds with 2 16x slots and 1 8x slot albeit at a slower speed. ATI opened the
technology up to Intel in 2006 and such all new Intel chipsets support Crossfire.
SLI is a little more proprietary in its needs. It requires a motherboard with Nvidia's own
NForce chipset series to allow it to run (exception: Intel X58 chipset).
It is important to note that SLI and Crossfire will not usually scale to 2x the performance of a
single card when using a dual setup. They also do not double the effective amount of VRAM
or memory bandwidth.

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

History
Prior to the advent of the microprocessor, a computer was usually built in a card-cage case
or mainframe with components connected by a backplane consisting of a set of slots
themselves connected with wires; in very old designs the wires were discrete connections
between card connector pins, but printed-circuit boards soon became the standard practice.
The central processing unit, memory and peripherals were housed on individual printed
circuit boards which plugged into the backplane.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of
peripheral functions onto the motherboard (see above). In the late 1980s, motherboards began
to include single ICs (called Super I/O chips) capable of supporting a set of low-speed
peripherals: keyboard, mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. As of the late
1990s, many personal computer motherboards support a full range of audio, video, storage,

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2
EE 1108 ENGINEERING COMPUTING

and networking functions without the need for any expansion cards at all; higher-end systems
for 3D gaming and computer graphics typically retain only the graphics card as a separate
component.
The early pioneers of motherboard manufacturing were Micronics, Mylex, AMI, DTK,
Hauppauge, Orchid Technology, Elitegroup, DFI, and a number of Taiwan-based
manufacturers.
Popular personal computers such as the Apple II and IBM PC had published schematic
diagrams and other documentation which permitted rapid reverse-engineering and third-party
replacement motherboards. Usually intended for building new computers compatible with the
exemplars, many motherboards offered additional performance or other features and were
used to upgrade the manufacturer's original equipment.
The term mainboard is archaically applied to devices with a single board and no additional
expansions or capability. In modern terms this would include embedded systems, and
controlling boards in televisions, washing machines etc. A motherboard specifically refers to
a printed circuit with the capability to add/extend its performance/capabailities with the
addition of "daughterboards".

AIRCRAFT ASSESSMENT 2