The streets of the computer Motherboard The streets of the computer

What is it? The motherboard is the main circuit board of the computer All other components of the computer are connected to the motherboard in some way The motherboard contains the “streets” on which all the communication between the other parts travels

Form Factor Refers the shape and layout of the motherboard Determines what components your computer can use Examples AT Baby AT ATX BTX

Chipsets Connects the CPU to the motherboard Determines how fast the CPU can communicate with the rest of the computer The are two parts the northbridge and southbridge The other components of a computer talk to the CPU via the chipset CPU are optimized to work with specific chipsets

Buses Buses are the circuits that connect one computer component to another Determines how fast components communicate with each other The front side bus connects the CPU to the northbridge Other buses Back side bus Memory bus IDE, ATA AGP PCI PCIe

Memory RAM – Random Access Memory Determines how fast a computer can access information In general, the more RAM the better Examples DRAM – Dynamic RAM SDRAM – Synchronous DRAM DDR – Dual Data Rate RDRAM – Rambus DRAM

Onboard Accessories Newer motherboards now come with onboard peripherals eliminating the need to buy extra peripheral cards These offer convenience at a potential cost of performance Examples Sound Video Ethernet