Flashcards
Chapter 6 - Motherboards
Cards in this deck (37)
- 1MotherboardInstrument on the computer that contains all of the wires (traces) required to power the hardware and connect it to each other. It holds the vast majority of the ports used by the peripherals, and it distributes the power from the main power supply.
- 2Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)Modern motherboards are layered PCBs, copper etched onto a nonconductive material and then coated w/some sort of epoxy for strength. The layers act essentially as leveled-highways for all of the traces and buses involved, ensuring there is no interference between the wires.
- 3Form FactorThe first of the three variables that define modern motherboards (along with chipsets and components). It determines the physical size of the motherboard as well as the general location of components and ports.
- 4ChipsetDefines the processor and RAM the motherboard requires and determines to a degree the built-in devices the motherboard supports, including the expansion slots. Almost all chipsets used in desktops and laptops are made either by Intel or AMD.
- 5AT Form FactorThe first dominant motherboard, it was invented by IBM in the early 1980s and was predominant through the mid-1990s. It is now obsolete. It came in a few sizes, from large to very large. The original AT was huge (12 inches wide and 13 inches deep) because PC tech at that time needed lots of space for the various chips necessary to run the components.
- 6What was the biggest problem with AT Form Factor motherboards?The lack of external ports. When PCs were first invented, the only devices plugged into a PC was a monitor and a keyboard, which was what the AT was designed to handle. As such, the only dedicated connector on an AT motherboard was the keyboard port. Added components thus created demand for a new form factor.
- 7ATX Form FactorA form factor that replaced AT form factor. It is distinct from AT in the lack of an AT keyboard port, replaced w/ a rear panel that has all necessary ports built in. This includes mini-DIN (PS/2), DVI, VGA, DisplayPort and other ports.
- 8Name some improvements of the ATX over the AT form factor.Position of the power supply created better air movement. The CPU and RAM are placed to provide easier access. The ATX rearranged components which prevented long expansion cards from colliding with the CPU or northbridge. RAM was placed closer to the northbridge and CPU which enhanced performance due to shorter wire length.
- 9Three size variations of ATX form factors1) Full-sized --> 12 by 9.6 inches
2) microATX (designated mATX by A+) --> 9.6 by 9.6 inches. Fit into the standard ATX case or smaller microATX case.
3) FlexATX --> max dimension of 9 by 7.5 inches. These are pretty much gone now. - 10ITXSmall form factor (SFF) motherboard. While the ITX wasn't really a successful form factor, but its manufacturer was able to use it to create a whole line of smaller form factors that still populate the SFF market. The most notable is mini-ITX, which is 6.7 inches by 6.7 inches and competes head to head with the virtually identical microATX. Advantage was the tiny amount of power needed to support them.
- 11Proprietary motherboardSeveral major PC makers in the past made their own motherboards that worked only with the PC maker's own case. This enabled them to create systems that stood out from generic systems and pushed you to get further service and upgrades from the same manufacturer.
- 12Riser cardA feature found on proprietary motherboards, the riser card entailed part of the motherboard being separate from the main motherboard but connected to the main motherboard by a cable of some sort. Some plugged into a unique socket or slot on the motherboard.
- 13Daughter BoardsThe technical term for the separate riser card that was able to be plugged in to a unique socket or slot on the motherboard.
- 14Super I/O chipIn early chipsets (and still in some computers) besides the northbridge and southbridge chipsets, manufacturers added a third chip called the Super I/O chip whose responsibility was to handle expansion devices and mass storage drives.
- 15Internal USB connectorSockets included on the motherboard that allows the user to plug in dongles for additional external USB ports. This adds the number of USB ports to more than those that are available on the exterior.
- 16Front Panel ConnectorsRefers to ports located on the front of the case that allows the user to plug in devices, namely audio (mic and headphones) and USBs.
- 17RJ-45 JackPort connected to the motherboard that allows for a network (ethernet) cable to be connected.
- 18RAID"Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks" it is a reference to a series of common disks on motherboards, most notably mirroring and striping.
- 19MirroringA type of RAID, it is the process of using two drives to hold the same data, which is good for safety, because if one drive dies, the other still has all of the data.
- 20StripingA type of RAID, it is the process of making two drives act as one drive by spreading data across them, which is good for speed.
- 21Expansion Slot/Expansion BusAdditional slots on motherboards that allow for adding expansion cards and thus new functions to the PC. The slots and accompanying wires and support chips on the first PC and on the latest and greatest PC are called the "expansion bus."
- 22Expansion Bus CrystalAnother crystal (like the CPU's system clock crystal) that controlled the EDB's connection to the expansion slots in order to allow the EDB connection to the Expansion slots to run at its own standardized speed.
- 23Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) BusCommon connection interface for attaching peripherals to the motherboard. It was the most commonly used Bus design largely up to 2005. It was 32 bits wide and ran at 33 MHz.
- 24Mini-PCIPCI for laptops. It was designed to use low power and to lie flat.
- 25PCI Express (PCIe)Still PCI, but uses a point-to-point serial connection instead of PCI's parallel communication. In parallel communication design, 32 wires carry one bit of a chunk of data while in serial, one wire carries all 32. Because the serial connection gets all the data there at roughly the same time, it doesn't require accuracy checks, which speeds it up.
- 26LaneRefers to a pair of wires in a PCIe connection, one for sending and the other for receiving.
- 27Transfer RateThe number of operations happening per second on a PCIe's lanes. Each direction runs at 2.5 gigatransfers per second (GTps) with PCIe 1.x, 5 GTps with PCIe 2.x, 8 GTpx with PCIe 3.x, and 16 GTps with PCIe 4.0. Each P2P connection can use 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 16 to achieve a max theoretical bandwidth of up to 256 GTps.
- 28Encoding SchemeRefers to the way the data is broken down and reassembled over a PCIe serial connection.
- 29PCI Express Mini Card (Mini-PCIe)Popular small form factor version of PCIe for laptops.
- 30PCIe pin-sizesThe most common PCIe slot is the 16-lane (x16 -- "by 16") for video cards. This size is far more than anything other than a video card would need, so most PCIe motherboards contain other slots with fewer lanes. The most common is x1 for general purpose and x4 slots.
- 31Windows Hardware Certification ProgramRigorous testing program for hardware manufacturers' device drivers run by Microsoft. In other words, the program tests the drivers and then puts a seal of approval on it. You only want to download these.
- 32Unsigned DriversDrivers that have not gone through the Windows Hardware Certification Program. The only ones that are unsigned now (that aren't obvious malware) are Beta Drivers, which hardware manufacturers use to test.
- 33Motherboard Catastrophic FailureThe computer won't boot. Leading up to this, the computer is working fine, then you hear a pop followed by the smell of ozone, and then the computer is dead.
- 34Distended CapacitorTerm given to a bad capacitor, which are devices that store and release energy, essentially smoothing the power on motherboards and other peripherals. In the mid-2000s there was a rash of capacitor manufacturers making bad ones that, b/c they were incorrectly formulated, failed at high rates and caused dead computers.
- 35Burn-in FailureManufacturing errors that lead to dead computers.
- 36Component FailureRarely happens and appears as flaky connections between a device and motherboard.
- 37—
Information
- Description
- Flashcards on Chapter 6 - Motherboards, created by Billy Magginis on 06/05/2020.
- Created by
- Billy Magginis
- Views
- 0
- Rating