A motherboard is the central or primary

printed circuit board making up a complex electronic system,such as a modern computers.

It is also known as a main board, base board, system board, and planar board.

A motherboard, is like a backplane,provides the electrical connections by which other components of the system communicate.

Introduction:

Before the invention of microprocessors, computers were built in

mainframes, with components which were connected by a backplane that had countless slots for connecting wires.

In old designs, wires were needed to connect card connector pins but, soon they became a thing of past with the invent of PCBs.

The CPU, memory and other peripherals were all housed on this printed circuit board.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, it was found that increasing the number of peripheral functions on the PCB was very economical.

Hence, single Integrated Circuits (ICs), capable of supporting low-speed peripherals like serial ports , mouse, keyboards, etc., were included on the motherboards.

History of the MotherBoard:

By the late 1990s, they began to have full range of

audio, video, storage and networking functions on them. Higher end systems for 3D gaming and graphic cards were also include later.

Micronics, Mylex, AMI, DTK, Orchid Technology, Elitegroup, etc. were few companies that were early pioneers in the field of motherboard manufacturing but, companies like Apple and IBM soon took over.

They offered high end, sophisticated motherboards that included upgraded features and superior performance over prevailing motherboards.

History of the MotherBoard:

The Motherboard takes care of the entire system one

way or the another. The function of the computer motherboard is to act as

the main circuit board that connects and communicates to all the devices and components attached.

The motherboard also facilitates the communication of devices with each other.

Measuring the motherboard's speed can be difficult and varies, depending on the CPU attached.

A motherboard has a maximum front side bus (FSB) speed, for example, but a CPU with that speed as well must be used.

Functions:

BIOS or basic input output and Boot memory also resides

on the motherboard. BIO is a kind of software which works when we turn on the

computer. BIO is also called a lower level program because it is

installed in the hardware. The job of the BIOS is to act as a communication channel

between motherboard and softwares. It is this printed circuit which contains chips and many

expansion cards to facilitate your working. It does not matter which ever component you attach to

your motherboard, the basic functioning of that device is dependent upon on the main board.

Functions:

Mother board also contains a chip set. This chip set is

really essential as it monitors the data flow in your personal computer.

It guides the movement and flow of data through the buses.

Motherboard chipset guides the data towards the correct paths and ultimately correct destinations.

Therefore it is mother board where you plug in your video cards, memory, cache and cards.

Motherboards are not produced in only one shape and size. The shape and the size of the mother board is adjusted depending on the need of the manufacturers.

Other features and Functions of Main Board

Components of the MotherBoard:

Types of MotherBoard:

Troubleshooting:

Motherboards fail for a variety of reasons,including dust, manufacturing defects, electrostatic discharges and flexing.

There are three types of motherboard failure,

Catastrophic, Component

Ethernal

If the pc will not boot, it is catastrophic

failure.This often occurs within the first 30 days a motherboard is in use.

Component failure may occur as an intermittent problem or a flaky connection between a device and the motherboard. The most common causes of component failure are electrical surges.

Ethereal symptoms are the most difficult ones to diagnose. You may get intermittent problems or the computer may reboot or you may get a blue screen of death.

Troubleshooting: