Motherboard

To keep things simple, Motherboard is a Printed Circuit Board(PCB) which holds sockets of other components of the computer. The name itself says MOTHERboard, which holds and supplies resource(Power) to each and every component in it. Those sockets of motherboard are as follows

1. CPU socket
2. Power Connector
3. Memory Slots
4. AGP/PCIe Slots
5. PCI Slots
6. IDE/SATA Port
7. ROM Chip
8. CMOS Battery
9. North and South Bridges
10. Panel Connectors

Motherboard and its sockets

1. CPU Socket: It is the slot which holds the processor(Brain of the Computer).

more information on CPU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit

Installing a CPU on motherboard is shown in the following video.

Computer Processor

2. Power Connector: Every electronic device need electricity to work. This electricity is being supplied by this power connector. Generally every house gets an Alternating Current(AC) power supply. But every electronic device works on Direct Current(DC). There are some devices available which are used to convert AC to DC, one of such device which is used in a computer is Switch Mode Power Supply Device. This converts AC to DC and then feeds the motherboard through the available power connector slot.

Connecting power supply to the motherboard is shown in the following video.

Connected power connector slot

3. Memory Slots: These slots vary in number on motherboards depending on its types. A typical small sized low-end motherboard contains a minimum of 2 memory slots and bit high-end motherboards contains 8 memory slots. These slots are used to connect Random Access Memory(RAM) of the computer. RAM is the primary storage of the computer. There are many types of RAM slots but the latest one is the DDR3 type. There are even DDR2 and DDR1 type of RAMs, but are getting outdated. You will learn more about RAM in the "Primary Storage" post.

Installing a RAM on the motherboard is shown in the following video.

RAM of a computer

4. AGP/PCIe Slots: The full form of AGP is Accelerated Graphics Port and PCIe is Peripheral Component Interconnect express. The names itself represent its duty.

• AGP is a slot which is used to install only graphics card. AGP is generally seen in light brown color.

• Where as PCIe, it is used to connect different components like USB slots, graphic cards, NIC cards, etc. PCIe slots are generally black in color and are available in different sizes. PCIe is the latest hardware compared to AGP and PCI.

Sizes of PCIe slots

AGP, PCIe and PCI slots

Installing a Graphic Card is shown in the above video.

5. PCI Slots: PCI slots are used to add an extra hardware to your motherboard, like installing USB port card, to give extra USB slots to your CPU or a sound card, etc. These slots are also termed as Expansion Slots.

Installing USB Card on a motherboard is shown in the above video

6. IDE/SATA port: The full form of IDE is Integrated Dive Electronics and SATA is Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.

Green = IDE port & Orange = SATA port

IDE and SATA are the types of hard disks(the device which stores user data). SATA is the new technology compared to IDE.

IDE & SATA cables

SATA uses 7 pin connector to connect to a motherboard, where as IDE use a 40 pin connector. IDE cables are also called as 'ribbon cables'.

SATA & IDE Hard-drives

Speed of data transfer is more on SATA compared to IDE, i.e. Roughly an IDE provides a speed of 5MB/sec to 130MB/sec where as SATA provides a speed of 150MB/sec to 600MB/sec.

Connected IDE & SATA hard-drives

According to the figure shown, there are two cables connected to a single hard-drive. The left one is the IDE hard-drive, it is connected to a 40 pin ribbon cable and a power cable, and the right one is the SATA hard-drive which is connected with the 7 pin cable and a power cable.

Installing a SATA Hard-drive is shown in the above video

7. ROM Chip: The full form of ROM is Read Only Memory. This memory is used to store the BIOS of the system.

ROM of the motherboard

BIOS is Basic Input Output System. It is the basic program that checks for all hardware components of the motherboard and also contains instructions to boot a system. This runs when the system is turned on or restarted.

BIOS installed on the motherbard

ROM cannot be changed or modified. It is a non-volatile storage.

This is the ROM which can be seen on the motherboard installed by default. But there are other ROM's in the market like CD-ROM drive, DVD-ROM drive, Blue-Ray ROM drive. Let us see the way to install these ROM's on the motherboard. These ROM's can be used by user externally.

Installing CD/DVD-ROM Drive is shown in the above video

8. CMOS Battery: The full form of CMOS battery is Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. It is a battery powered semiconductor chip inside computers that stores system time and date to system hardware settings for your computer

Installing CMOS Battery on the Mother Board

9. North and South Bridges: They got their names by their location on the motherboard architecture.
Here North Bridge generally handle tasks with CPU, PCIe slots and RAM of the motherboard. Some northbridges also contain integrated video controllers, also known as a Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) in Intel systems. North Bridge connects with CPU via Front-Side Bus (FSB), which is responsible for tasks that require the highest performance.

Where as South Bridge generally called as Input/Output Controller Hub(ICH), while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has named its South Bridge as Fusion Controller Hub (FCH) since the introduction of its Fusion APUs. South Bridge chip-set handles all I/O functions of a computer, such as USB, audio, serial, the system BIOS, the ISA bus, the interrupt controller and the IDE channels.

North Bridge and South Bridge are generally connected with PCI Bus

Typical Connection Diagram

10. Panel Connectors: These are the generally referred to as front panel connectors where LED, Reset, USB, Audio and Speaker connectors are connected on the motherboard.

Here is an illustrative video on how to connect the Panel Connectors

Queries and Suggestions are accepted. Also mention your views in the comment box below.

Thank You.

Basics of Computer

First of all I would like to make things simple. This article contains the basic concept of the topic.

Computer:

Computer is a device which takes information from user as input and then produces a required information as output. It is also called as PC in regular use. PC stands for Personal Computer.

Computer does not only mean that we work on it by sitting in front of a screen. There are computers in early days which have no screen or mouse, for example

Astrolabe(used for navigation purpose) and Abacus(used as a math tool similar to calculator).

more information on Astrolabe: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolabe

more information on Abacus: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

Charles Babbage and his
First Mechanical Computer in early 19th Century

  
The concept of programmable computer was first invented by Charles Babbage. He is also called as "father of the computer". His computer name is Difference Engine.
more information on Difference Engine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

Alan Turing and his Turing Machine
in early 20th Century

Coming to digitization of computers, Turing Machines are on its toes in early 20th century. Turing Machine was first developed by a pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing.
more information on Turing Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine

Desktop Computers
in 21st Century

Size of computer depends on the components used in making it. If the size of components are big, then the computer will eventually turn to be big.
But these days components used in computers got smaller and powerful, eventually computers became smaller and effective to use. They can work on different inputs given by the user at a same time and can produce efficient outputs in no time.
more information on Desktop Computers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computer

Components present in these modern computers are as follows

Components of a computer:

1. Motherboard
2. Processor
3. Primary Storage
4. Secondary Storage
5. Switch Mode Power Supply
6. Input Devices
7. Output Devices

Components explanation will be given in the following posts.

Suggestions are accepted. Mention your views in comment box below.

Thank You.