Download Mother Board Types: AT vs. ATX and Their Constituent Components and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Computer Fundamentals in PDF only on Docsity!
1.2.5 MOTHER BOARD TYPES
Computer Motherboard and its constituent components: There are primarily two types of motherboards: AT motherboard, and ATX motherboard. AT motherboard AT motherboards are older and not commonly used now a day. The AT and ATX motherboards differ in the form factor. Full AT is 12" wide x 13.8" deep, and Baby AT is 8.57" wide x 13.04" deep. AT has 5-pin large keyboard connector. AT has single row two connectors +/-5V, and +/-12V. ATX motherboard Full-ATX is 12" wide x 9.6" deep and Mini-ATX is 11.2" wide x 8.2" deep. Other major differences include power supply connector, and keyboard connector. ATX has 6-pin mini connector. Similarly, ATX motherboard has double row single connector providing +/-5V, +/-12V, and +3.3V.
The important constituent components of an ATX Motherboard are given below:
- Mouse & keyboard
- USB
- Parallel port
- CPU Chip
- RAM slots
- Floppy controller
- IDE controller
- PCI slot
- ISA slot
- CMOS Battery
- AGP slot
- CPU slot
- Power supply plug in 1. Mouse & keyboard: Keyboard Connectors are two types basically. All PCs have a Key board port connected directly to the motherboard. The oldest, but still quite common type, is a special DIN, and most PCs until recently retained this style connector. The AT-style keyboard connector is quickly disappearing, being replaced by the smaller mini DIN PS/2-style keyboard connector. An AT-style keyboard with a PS/2-style socket (or the other way around) by using a converter. Although the AT connector is unique in PCs, the PS/2-style mini-DIN is also used in more modern PCs for the mouse. Some keyboards have a USB connection, but these are fairly rare compared to the PS/ connection keyboards. 2. USB (Universal serial bus): USB is the General-purpose connection for PC.
10.CMOS Battery: To provide CMOS with the power when the computer is turned off all motherboards comes with a battery. These batteries mount on the motherboard in one of three ways: the obsolete external battery, the most common onboard battery, and built-in battery. 11.AGP slot: If you have a modern motherboard, you will almost certainly notice a single connector that looks like a PCI slot, but is slightly shorter and usually brown. You also probably have a video card inserted into this slot. This is an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) slot 12.CPU slot: To install the CPU, just slide it straight down into the slot. Special notches in the slot make it impossible to install them incorrectly. So remember if it does not go easily, it is probably not correct. Be sure to plug in the CPU fan's power. 13.Power supply plug in: The Power supply, as its name implies, provides the necessary electrical power to make the pc operate. The power supply takes standard 110-V AC power and converts into +/-12-Volt, +/-5- Volt, and 3.3-Volt DC power. The power supply connector has 20-pins, and the connector can go in only one direction.
Types of Motherboards
Motherboard is the most important component of a system. It is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) where all the components of a system are connected. The Central Processing Unit (CPU), hard drives, memory and every other part of a system is connected to the motherboard by means of slots, connectors and sockets. The motherboard chipset is a series of chips that are a part of the motherboard. Types of Motherboards and the capacity and efficiency of motherboards differ according to the type of system you use. Motherboards are classified as integrated and Non-integrated devices depending on the devices they support. Motherboards which have all the ports for connecting various devices on board are known as integrated motherboards. All the latest desktop, server and laptop boards are of the integrated type. Motherboards which do not support connecting devices are known as Non-Integrated motherboards. Older boards were of non integrated types.
Classification of Motherboards: Integrated Motherboards Integrated motherboards have all the peripheral device slots, input output ports, serial and parallel ports are mounted on the board. The connectors for the various devices such as the hard drive connector and floppy disk drive connector are installed directly on to the motherboard. This arrangement saves a lot of space inside the system. Integrated boards are cheaper in cost as compared to non-integrated motherboards. The major disadvantage of these types of motherboards are that if an individual component of the motherboard fails, the whole board may need to be replaced and that can be a costly affair at times. Non-integrated Motherboards Non-Integrated motherboards have RAM slots integrated on the board. All the input-output ports for devices such as the serial and parallel port connectors, other controllers such as connectors for hard drive and floppy disk drives are attached to the system using expansion boards. Expansion boards use more space of the cabinet. If any one of the expansion boards fate, only those particular expansions board needs to be replaced and not the whole board. This type of board is more costly as compared to integrated board as all the devices and ports, and other connectors for the devices need to be installed individually. The Non-integrated Motherboards are almost extinct because these types of motherboards are costly and not very space efficient. Desktop Motherboards Desktop Motherboards is used in personal computers and desktops. As it is used for applications at home and in office, this type of motherboard is the most basic type.
