Motherboard Major Parts and Function.

Motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many
of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other peripherals.




Every motherboard has connectors and slots to connect all the remaining parts of CPU. here the list of all the slot and connector of
motherboard.
CPU Socket
North Bridge
South Bridge
RAM Slots
AGP Slot
PCI Slots
PCIe slots
CNR Slot
Floppy slot
IDE Slot
SATA Port
BIOS
CMOS battery
Front Panel Port headers and connectors

1. CPU Socket - CPU Socket or Processor Socket. Which is used to install or insert the processor. we have two types of sockets.
LIF sockets and ZIF socket. LIF stands for Low Insertion Force, this is the old model sockets and ZIF stands for Zero Insertion
Force, this is the present model sockets.

2. North Bridge- typically handles communications among the CPU, RAM, BIOS ROM, and PCI Express (or AGP) video cards,
and the south bridge.
3. South Bridge - also known as an I/O controller hub (ICH) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use
Southbridge). Is a chip that implement the slower capabilities of the motherboard in a Northbridge/Southbridge chipset
computer architecture
4. Memory slot, or RAM slot- is what allows computer memory (RAM) to be inserted into the computer. Depending on
the motherboard, there will usually be 2 to 4 memory slots (sometimes more on high-end motherboards) and are what
determine the type of RAM used with the computer. The most common types of RAM are SDRAM and DDR for desktop
computers and SODIMM for laptop computers, each having various types and speeds.
5. Accelerated Graphic Port (AGP) - is a high speed point to point channel for attaching a video card to a computers
motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics.
6. PCIe Slot (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) - is a major redesign that uses high speed serial signaling arranged
in lanes. This allows different sized cards to be used that may or may not require high speed transfers.
7. PCI Slot-"Peripheral Component Interconnect." It is a hardware bus designed by Intel and used in both PCs and Macs. Most
add-on cards such as SCSI, Firewire, and USB controllers, use a PCI connection. Some graphics cards use PCI, but most new
graphics cards connect to the AGP slot. PCI slots are found in the back of your computer and are about 3.5" long and about
0.5" high. So before you go buy that Firewire expansion card, make sure you have at least one PCI slot available.
8. Communications and Networking Riser (CNR) is a slot found on certain PC motherboards and used for specialized
networking, audio, and telephony equipment.
9. Audio Modem Riser Slot (AMR) - is a riser expansion slot found on the motherboards of some Pentium III, Pentium 4,
Duron, and Athlon personal computers. It was designed by Intel to interface with chipsets and provide analog functionality,
such as sound cards
10. FDD Slot (Floppy Disk Drive) a slot that supports the 33 pin FDD connector.
11. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronic refers not just to the connector and interface definition, but also to the fact that the
drive controller is integrated into the drive.
- An interface standard for the connection of storage devices such as hard disk, solid state drives, floppy drives, and cd rom
drives in computers.
12. SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass
storage devices such as hard disk drive and optical drives.
13. BIOS (Basic Input Output System) - The BIOS is the motherboard serves to connect between the existing software in
computers with hardware that is installed on the motherboard. The BIOS itself is an acronym for Basic Input / Output
System. In the BIOS there are programs that can be used to regulate how a component mounted on the motherboard can
work..
Bios runs when the PC is started.
To check the status of the motherboard circuitry.
To prepare the system ready for the DOS (Disk Operating System) normally Windows or Linux to boot and take over.
To allow access to the computers settings stored in CMOS memory.
14. Parallel Port is a type of interface found on computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting various peripherals. In
computing, a parallel port is a parallel communication physical interface. It is also known as a printer port or centronics
port.
15. Serial Port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time
(contrast parallel port).
16. CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) the PC motherboard needed a non-volatile memory to store
system settings, designers used a CMOS SRAM powered by battery. This chip became known as the CMOS Memory.
17. ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) is a computer form factor specification developed by Intel in 1995 to improve on
previous de-facto standards like the AT form factor.
ATX Connects to the 24-pin ATX power cable of a power supply unit which supplies power to the motherboard.
18. USB Port (Universal Serial Bus) is intended to replace many varieties of serial and parallel ports. USB can connect
computer peripherals such as mice, keyboard, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drive, and external
hard drives.
19. Ethernet Port a port use to connect a registered jack (RJ 45) enables our computer to connect our Local Area Network or
the Internet.
20. Personal System Port (PS/2) port is used for connecting some keyboards and mouse to a PC compatible computer
system.
Note: violet is for keyboard, while green is for mouse.
21. Audio Jack a socket for plugging in an audio source. Audio jacks are found on many types of audio equipment and musical
instruments that accept external sound sources.

Front Panel Port Header and Connectors

System Panel header and Connectors
*Alternatively referred to as the fpanel or front panel connector, the system panel connector is what controls
the computer's power button, reset button, and LED's found on the front bezel of a computer using
the system panel cables.
HDD LED (IDE LED) - The LED activity light for the hard drive. This is the LED that
flashes as information is being written and read from the hard drive.
Power LED (PLED) - The LED power light, which indicates when the computer is
on, off, or in Standby.
Power SW (PWRSW) - Controls the power button that allows you to turn on
and off the computer.
Reset SW - Handles the reset button to restart the computer.
Speaker - The internal speaker used to sound the beep noises you hear from
your computer when it is booting.
1. USB Header - The 1394 header and USB header is a pin
connection found on a computer motherboard that allow additional 1394 and USB
connections to be added to the computer.
2. Fan Headers - Supplies power to the CPU heat sink fan and
computer case fan.
3. Audio Header - The front panel audio header on an Intel
Desktop Board lets you connect to a front panel audio module built into a system
chassis.

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