Motherboard

Click on image for an enlarged view

Now that you know where you stand, let's start with the most important component inside a PC - the
Motherboard. The motherboard is the main circuit board in the computer. It is the biggest circuit board found
inside the computer.

• Its main function is to allow the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the "brain" of the computer, to
communicate with other components.
• A motherboard is a thin flat piece of circuit board, usually of green or gold color.
• The motherboard has sockets to connect various components like Keyboard, Mouse, Disk
drives, PC cards etc. to the computer.
• Copper circuit paths called traces that resemble a complicated roadmap carry signals and
voltages across the motherboard.
• The motherboard has multiple layers so that some layers of the board can carry data for the
BIOS, Processor and Memory Buses while other layers carry voltage and ground returns without the
paths short-circuiting at intersections.

• Chips and sockets are soldered onto the motherboard.

CPU

Next in line to the Motherboard and equally important is the CPU.

CPU stands for Central Processing Unit, a programmable logic device that performs all the instruction, logic, and
mathematical processing in a computer. The CPU is the 'brain' of the computer. Also referred to as the processor
or central processor.
In terms of computing power, the CPU is the most important element of a computer system. On large machines,
CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards.
On personal computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in a single chip called a microprocessor.
The CPU is about quarter of an inch in width with pins underneath it. It is usually black or dark grey. The CPU will
likely be the larger of the chips on the motherboard inside your PC.
Look at the adjacent picture for a better understanding.
How CPU Works and Types of CPU
Take a look at the adjacent diagram. It gives you a clear idea that the CPU does 4 essential tasks. You’ll observe
that the CPU:

• receives data from INPUT devices

• processes this data
• sends information to OUTPUT devices
• sends and receives data from storage (memory)

Types of CPU
The two main desktop CPU manufacturers are Intel and AMD. Both of these companies have a Power CPU and
a Budget CPU. The Power CPU's are the Pentium series from Intel and the Athlon XP from AMD. The budget
CPU's are the Celeron from Intel and the Duron from AMD.

Speed

The CPU's speed is measured in MHz (megahertz) or more recently in GHz (gigahertz). A chip with a megahertz
rating of 900 MHz would be able to complete 900 million cycles every second. This means the higher the Clock
Speed the faster the computer works.
Today's computers are powered with a minimum of 1 GHz processing speed. The most common type of
processor is the Intel Pentium 4 from Intel Corp. Its processors have a speed of more than 2 GHz.

Main Memory

Data and instructions are stored in the Main Memory.

It stores programs and data when the computer is running. Programs that are to be executed by the computer
are placed in the main memory and the CPU in turn gets each instruction from the memory and executes it. Main
memory is fast and limited in its capacity. Only the CPU can access the information in main memory directly. The
main memory cannot retain information when the computer is switched off. Main memory has a series of
locations that are called bytes, each byte equals eight bits. Every byte has an address related to it by which it can
be accessed. The address is stored in the form of a number.

For example, you would find the mail for James by looking in James' letterbox. In the same way, the control unit
will find the contents of location 1 by looking in that location.

RAM

RAM stands for Random Access Memory.

RAM is a temporary memory. The computer uses it to store data and instructions while it is working. When the
computer is switched off this information is lost. RAM is plugged into the motherboard and looks like a card
shown on the right.
The capacity of RAM in a computer can be increased based on the user requirements. The maximum increase
depends on the motherboard. It depends on the number of available slots on the motherboard and the maximum
capacity each slot can support. The Clock Speed RAM also plays an important role. The frequency has to match
with the motherboard's frequency.

ROM

ROM stands for Read Only Memory. ROM is a permanent store of instructions which cannot be erased or
changed and is not lost when the power is switched off.

The ROM-BIOS, which is a permanent part of the Motherboard, uses Flash memory, a type of ROM.

The instructions on the ROM chip are electronically written on to it.

A typical ROM-BIOS chip contains information of the devices installed in the computer and the configuration of
these devices.

It also keeps the system time and various other settings, which the user can change according to his/her usage.

ROM-BIOS is soldered onto the motherboard.

Power Supply
The power supply provides the necessary electrical power to make the computer operate.

The power supply takes standard 110-volt AC power and converts it into 12 volts, 5 volts and sometimes 3.3-volt
DC power.

Power supplies, often referred to as "switching power supplies", use switcher technology to convert the AC input
to lower DC voltages.

A vast majority of the power supplies is about the size of a shoebox cut to half and are usually gray or metallic.
Leading out of the power supply are a number of connectors. There is one set of connectors for the motherboard,
and there are number of other connectors for other components.

On most computers, the back of the power supply is visible, with a connection for the power plug. There is
always a fan that keeps the interiors of the PC cool.

Card Controllers

The card controllers are found inside the computer on a motherboard. There are various types of card controllers
like:

• video card
• sound card
• network card

The purpose of these cards is to connect an external device to the computer and allow the interaction from a user
to the computer and also the device to the computer.

To start with, let's have a look at the features of a sound card followed by the display card and network card.
Sound Card

The sound travels in waves and is analog whereas the computer understands 0's and 1's or digital language. The
sound card acts as an interface between the audio device and the computer.
A typical sound card contains a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that handles most computations. It also has:

• a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) for audio leaving the computer.

• a Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for audio coming into the computer Musical Instrument
Digital Interface (MIDI) for connecting to external music equipment (for many cards, the game port is
also used to connect an external MIDI adapter).
• jacks for connecting speakers and microphones, as well as line in and line out.
• a game port for connecting a joystick or game-pad.

Current sound cards usually plug into a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slot, while some older or
inexpensive cards may use the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. Many of the computers available today
incorporate the sound card as a chipset right on the motherboard. This leaves another slot open for other
peripherals

Video Card

The card that converts electronic signal into the language understood by the user is called a display card or a
video card.

The display capabilities of a computer, however, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video
adapter) and the display monitor. A monochrome monitor, for example, cannot display colors no matter how
powerful the video adapter is. The two basic categories of video modes are text and graphics.

• In text mode, a monitor can display only ASCII characters.

• In graphics mode, a monitor can display any bit-mapped image.
• Within the text and graphics mode, some monitors also offer a choice of resolutions.
• At lower resolutions a monitor can display more colors.
• Modern video adapters contain memory, so that the computer's RAM is not used for storing
displays.

• In addition, most adapters have their own graphics coprocessor for performing graphics
 calculations. These adapters are often called graphics accelerators. Video adapters are also called
video cards, video boards, video display boards, graphics cards and graphics adapters
Network Card

A Network Interface Card, often abbreviated as NIC, is an expansion board that is sometimes installed on the
motherboard of a computer to enable communication with other computers connected to a network. Most NIC's
are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and media, although some can serve multiple networks.

The PCs are usually connected by some type of cabling, usually an advanced type of phone-cable or coaxial
cable. Network cards (NIC's) provide the interface between the network and computer's. A NIC can be
recognized by any of these connectors: a RJ45, BNC, 15-pin female DB, or 9-pin female DB. It is very common
to see NIC's with more than one type of connector. Probably the most common combination: NIC has an RJ-45
and a BNC.

System Ports

Just like we use a port to transport any goods, similarly we need a port to send or receive the data in a computer.
These are called System Ports.
A Port is an interface through which data is sent or received. We connect the devices to the ports. Modern
computers have ports, which are colored and marked specifically to indicate which device fits into a particular
port. You cannot fit a device into a wrong port as the device will not fit in and all the ports are marked universally
the same.

• The first port is for the input devices or PS/2 connectors, which is a female connector. The
keyboard connector is always in blue and the mouse connector is in green.
• The two small rectangular hollow boxes are USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors. You can
plug in high speed serial devices into this port.
• The small square type connector is called Ethernet port, which is used to connect network
cable. The connector looks like a telephone connector.
• The 9 pin blue male connector is for connecting the modem.
• The blue 15 pin female connector is for connecting the monitor.
• The purple color female connector is a parallel port for connecting a printer.
• The yellow color female connector is a game port and is used to connect the joystick.
 • The last three sockets are for connecting speakers, headphones and microphones.
Jumpers

Jumpers are used to configure computer peripherals such as Hard Drives, Modems, Sound Cards, and various
other components. For example when installing a new hard drive you may need to change the jumper settings
depending on whether the hard drive is a master drive or a slave drive.

Jumpers allow the computer to close an electrical circuit allowing the electricity to flow throughout certain
sections of the circuit board. Generally the jumpers consist of a set of small pins, which can be covered with a
small plastic box. This box connects the two pins together allowing the electricity to flow freely between the two
pins. Similar to Jumpers are the Switches.

Switches

Dip switches are designed with the same intentions as jumpers. However instead of having to remove the jumper
block and placing it over separate pins, dip switches are actually small switches which can be turned to the ON or
OFF position.

Like Jumpers, Dip Switches are used to configure computer peripherals such as Hard Drives, Modems, Sound
Cards, and various other components. Generally, Dip Switches are usually found only on PC Boards such as the
Motherboard, Sound Card, or other PC Boards.

System Case

The system case, sometimes called the chassis or enclosure, is a metal and plastic box that houses the main
components of the computer. While the case isn't as critical to the system as some other computer components
(like the processor or hard disk), it has several important roles to play in the functioning of a properly designed
and well-built computer.

• Structure: The motherboard and all other internal components are mounted into the case.
Everything outside of your computer is protected from noise created by the components inside the box,
and electrical interference as well.
• Status Display: The case contains lights that give the user information about what is going on
inside the box (not a lot, but some). Some of these are built into the case and others are part of the
devices that are mounted into the case.