4-17-2012
Motherboards- the main circuit board of your computer and is also known as the mainboard or logic board. If you ever open your computer, the biggest piece of silicon you see is the motherboard.
CPU- Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This is the pretty much the brain of your computer. It processes everything from basic instructions to complex functions. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to the CPU
ATX Form Factor- specification takes the original Baby AT-sized motherboard, rotates it 90 degrees, and calls for a power supply with a side-mounted fan that cools not only the power supply, but also the processor and add-in boards. This new approach was designed to lower costs and provide better motherboard placement in an ATX case. In addition, the ATX form factor introduced a large set of I/O ports that are wired directly to the motherboard, and standard support for PS/2 keyboard and mouse connections.
AT Form Factor- A PC form factor that describes the way a motherboard fits into a case and works with a power supply. Thus, you match an AT power supply with an AT case and an AT motherboard. Some of the things common to AT motherboards are a large 5-pin DIN socket for plugging a keyboard in, and serial and parallel port interfaces available via riser cards that are not part of the motherboard itself. The AT form factor was succeeded by the ATX form factor
Case- The cabinet that contains the computer's power supply, motherboard, memory, disk drives and other peripheral control units
I/O Devices- An input device is any peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment) used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system; An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results of data processing carried out by an information processing system
P1 Power 20-Pin and 24-Pin- PC Main power connector (usually called P1): This is the connector that goes to the motherboard to provide it with power. The connector has 20 or 24 pins. One of the pins belongs to the PS-ON wire (it is usually green). This connector is the largest of all the connectors
PS/2 Connectors- A 6-pin Mini-DIN plug and socket used to connect a keyboard and mouse to a computer. First introduced on IBM's PS/2 desktop PC, the port was later used by everybody else, first on laptops, then on desktops
USB Connectors- Abbreviated USB, it is a standard type of connection for many different kinds of devices. Generally, it refers to the types of cables, ports and connectors used to connect these many types of external devices to computers.
DIMM Slots- Dual Inline Memory Module is a circuit board on which memory chips are attached to a small PCB which is then plugged into a socket on a motherboard. The DIMM PCB has a row of gold fingers on each side at the bottom of the PCB to make connection with a memory socket. Some alternatives to a DIMM are COB and Mezzanine cards, memory cartridges, and memory cards
AGP Slots- Accelerated Graphics Port (often shortened to AGP) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics.
PCI Slots- The Peripheral Component Interface slots are found in better computers for adding and upgrading your system with new ports like SCSI, USB or Firewire.
PCIx Slot- (Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended) is a computer bus technology (the "data pipes" between parts of a computer) that increases the speed that data can move within a computer from 66 MHz to 133 MHz.
PCIe (Express) - PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express is a scalable I/O (Input/Output) serial bus technology set to replace parallel PCI bus which came standard on motherboards manufactured from the early 1990s through 2004. In the latter part of 2004 PCI Express slots began appearing alongside standard slots, starting a gradual transition.
IDE Connectors-(Integrated Drive Electronics) is a standard electronic interface used between a computer motherboard's data paths or bus and the computer's disk storage devices
SATA Connectors- an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps.
Soft Power Button- the power button in front is a "soft" power button causing a normal Windows shutdown and restart
Power Switch- is on the back of the computer and immediately kills all power
Wake on LAN- is a technology that allows a network professional to remotely power on a computer or to wake it up from sleep mode. By remotely triggering the computer to wake up and perform scheduled maintenance tasks, the technician does not have to physically visit each computer on the network
CMOS- is a widely used type of semiconductor. CMOS semiconductors use both NMOS (negative polarity) and PMOS (positive polarity) circuits. Since only one of the circuit types is on at any given time, CMOS chips require less power than chips using just one type of transistor. This makes them particularly attractive for use in battery-powered devices, such as portable computers. Personal computers also contain a small amount of battery-powered CMOS memory to hold the date, time, and system setup parameters.
BTX Form Factor- BTX, acronym for Balanced Technology Extended is an interface specification that provides a common, flexible foundation, based on standards that can be used to build innovative desktop systems. The BTX specification provides new tools and design space for developers to lay out desktop systems, whether designing small, compact systems or very large, expandable systems. BTX is also optimized for the newest desktop technologies, including PCI Express and Serial ATA. It is also designed to allow for better heat dissipation by incorporating a new thermal module design for better air flow.
NLX Form Factor- A form factor similar to ATX. The difference is that NLX machines contain a riser card into which the other expansion cards are plugged. This allows for a shorter desktop case. NLX replaced LPX as a standard low profile form factor.
Riser Cards- A printed circuit board for low-profile motherboards. The peripheral controller cards plug into the riser card and sit parallel with the motherboard, An expansion card that is used to physically extend a slot in order to make it easier to plug in the chip or card, A small PC expansion card that contains audio, modem and networking capabilities. When first introduced, it let manufacturers create custom systems for different audiences using motherboards that had none of these built-in functions. After audio and networking were built into the motherboard, risers were used for modems because they could be easily interchanged for international certification
Expansion Slots- A long narrow socket in a computer into which an expansion card can be inserted
Daughter Boards-(daughtercard", "daughter card") A printed circuit board that connects to the motherboard. The daughterboard is typically smaller than the motherboard. A daughter board often adds to or supports the main functions of the motherboard, unlike an expansion card which provides some new function. Daughter Boards(daughter cards)are also known as riser cards
Communication Buses- A device that transfers control, timing, and data signals between switching processor subsystems; designed to provide physical and electrical isolation, to provide for simple addition of units on an in-service basis, and to provide pluggable connection for efficient factory testing, installation, and maintenance.
Buses- A parallel circuit that connects the major components of a computer, allowing the transfer of electric impulses from one connected component to any other.
Components- A small binary object or program that performs a specific function and is designed in such a way to easily operate with other components and applications. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with applet.
Data- Numerical or other information represented in a form suitable for processing by computer
System Bus- The path between a microprocessor and the chipset on the motherboard. This bus may or may not run at the same speed as the memory bus
Connectors-(computer science) In database management, a pointer or link between two data structures.
(electronics) A switch, or relay group system, which finds the telephone line being called as a result of digits being dialed; it also causes interrupted ringing voltage to be placed on the called line or of returning a busy tone to the calling party if the line is busy
Pin- An exposed and rigid metal wire. A group of pins make up a "male" connector, and you can plug it into a compatible female connector. On motherboards and add-on cards you can often connect pins electrically with a jumper to change features on the boards. Pins are also found on cables with male connectors
40-Pin IDE Connector-Industry standards define two common types of hard drives: EIDE and SCSI. Majority of the PCs use EIDE drives. SCSI drives show up in high end PCs such as network servers or graphical workstations. The EIDE drive connects to the hard drive via a 2-inch-wide, 40-pin ribbon cable,which in turn connects to the motherboard. IDE controller is responsible for controlling the hard drive
34-Pin Floppy Drive Connector-A ribbon cable found in PC computers that allow one or more floppy disk drives to be connected to a computer
50- or 68-Pin SCSI- is used to connect computer parts that use a system called SCSI to communicate with each other. Generally, two connectors designated male and female, plug together to form a connection which allows two components, such as a computer and a disk drive, to communicate with each other. SCSI connectors can be electrical connectors or optical connectors.
8- or 16-bit ISA Slot-(Industry Standard Architecture) An expansion bus commonly used in earlier PCs that accepted plug-in boards for sound, video display and other peripheral connectivity. Originally called the "AT bus," which was introduced with the IBM PC AT in 1984, the AT/ISA bus extended the PC bus from 8 to 16 bits. For several years, many motherboards provided a mix of both 8-bit and 16-bit ISA slots. As PCI became popular, motherboards included only 16-bit ISA and PCI, and by the early 2000s, began to phase out ISA entirely
MCA- Stands for "Micro Channel Architecture." It is an expansion bus created by IBM that was used in the company's PS/2 desktop computers. An expansion bus allows additional cards to be connected to the computer's motherboard, expanding the number of I/O ports. These include SCSI, USB, Firewire, AGP, and DVI connections, as well as many others
EISA- is a PC bus standard that extends the 16-bit ISA bus (AT bus) to 32 bits and provides bus mastering. ISA cards can plug into an EISA slot. It was announced in 1988 as a 32-bit alternative to the Micro Channel that would preserve investment in existing boards. However, EISA runs at the slow 8 MHz speed of the ISA bus in order to accommodate any ISA cards that may be plugged into it. EISA has been superseded by PCI
Vesa Local Bus-(VESA stands for "Video Electronics Standards Association"). The VLB or VL-bus is a hardware interface on the computer's motherboard that is attached to an expansion slot. By connecting a video expansion card to the VLB, you can add extra graphics capabilities to your computer. The interface supports 32-bit data flow at up to 50 MHz. Though the VLB architecture was popular in the early 1990s, it has since been replaced by the newer and faster, but still three-lettered, ISA, PCI, and AGP slots
Motherboard Connectors-Every PC power supply has special connectors that attach to the motherboard, giving power to the system processor, memory, and all slotted add-on boards (ISA, PCI, and AGP).
5. Summary of my thoughts on the information presented in the video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards).
My thoughts on this video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) was very informative. I now know some of the stuff that I need to know for the CompTIA A+ Test. For me nothing in this video was confusing, they explained everything very well my personal onion. I learned about the different connectors for the motherboard and how they were designed and how they connect to the motherboard. I learned about the different buses and the different kind of slots that is listed above. I figure I would use this information that I learned from the video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) in my chosen field of study, to build computers and repair them.
Unit 4 Assignment 1: Video Summary 2
1. Watched the video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards).
2. Summary of the information presented in the clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards).
In this video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards), the information that is presented to me is how to start to build my own computer. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you about the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you what kind of power supplies connecters for the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you what kind of connectors that a mouse and keyboard use with the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you what kind of memory slots that are used with the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you what kind of expansion slots that the ATX Form Factor uses. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that you normally have two IDE connectors and you have one or two SATA connectors on the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you about the Soft Power button and the Power switch located on the back of the computer and what it does when you push it on the ATX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) talks about the Wake on LAN Feature on the ATX Form Factor.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) they tell about the BTX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells about the power supply and the better air flow for better cooling and they may ask about it on the A+ on the BTX Form Factor. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells about the NLX Form Factor and that the NLX supports riser cards. The A+ may ask about the daughter boards which are also known as riser cards.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you about the Communication Buses. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that the buses allow communication between different types of hardware and the computer such as CPU, hard drive, mouse, USB devices, sound card, speakers, keyboard, and other devices. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that the System Bus is the largest and the fastest of the buses and that it connects the motherboard to the CPU.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you about the different connectors. The different connector on the motherboard are the P1 power (the 20-Pin and the 24-Pin), 40-Pin IDE connector, the 34-pin floppy drive connector, the SATA connectors, 50- or 68-pin SCSI connector.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you about the different Expansion Slots. The different expansion slots are the 8-bit ISA slot, 16-bit ISA slot, MCA slot, EISA slot, Vesa Local Bus slot, PCI slot, PCIe (Express) slot, AGP slot.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you and shows you how to identify the PCI and AGP slots. The PCI a lot is white and longer and the AGP slot is brown and shorter. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that on the A+ test may show you a picture of a motherboard and ask you to identify the PCI and AGP slot. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that there will be several PCI slot but only one AGP slot. The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) that today’s motherboards support either AGP slots or PCIe slots but not both. A motherboard may have several PCI slots and one AGP slot or several PCI slots and one PCIe slot.
The video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards) tells you that on the A+ Exam expects you to know the differences between the features found on the ATX Form Factors, BTX Form Factors, NLX Form Factors. You must also know about riser cards, soft power feature and the wake on LAN feature and you must be able to identify the various connectors that are supported by the different motherboard.
3. Topics Presented in the video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards)
Motherboards
Most important consideration
Motherboard
CPU
Size and shape
Determined by form factor
ATX Form Factor
Replaced older AT form factor
Smaller
Better organization
Easier to work on
Support for wide variety of I/O devices
Soft Power button
Front of computer
Does not immediately cut power
Allows normal OS shutdown process
Power switch
Back of computer
Immediately kills all power
Wake on LAN
Configured in CMOS
Keyboard activity
Network activity
BTX Form Factor
20- or 24-pin P1 power connection
Better air flow for better cooling
Intake vent at back
CPU heat sink fins and memory modules installed
parallel to air flow
NLX Form Factor
Supports riser cards
Fit into expansion slots
Provide connectors for additional expansion cards
Also known as daughter boards
Communication Buses
Buses
Appear as copper tracing
Connect various components
Allow delivery of power and data
System Bus
Largest bus
Fastest bus
Connects motherboard to CPU
Connectors
Be able to identify theses connectors
P1 power Connector
40-pin IDE Connector
34-pin floppy drive Connector
SATA Connector
50- or 68-pin SCSI Connector
Expansion Slots
8-bit ISA Slot
Used in early computers
16-bit ISA Slot
Next generation
MCA
EISA
Vesa Local Bus
PCI
Fast
PCIx
Faster
PCIe (Express)
Fastest
Expected to replace AGP
AGP
High speed alternative to PCI
Used for video
Identify PCI and AGP slots
PCI-white and longer
AGP-brown and shorter
A motherboard may have:
several PCI slots and one AGP slot
or
several PCI slots and one PCIe slot
A+ Exam
The A+ Exam expects you to know:
-Differences between
>ATX
>BTX
>NLX
-Riser cards
-Soft power
-Wake on LAN
-Motherboard connectors
4. Terms and Their Definitions used in the video clip (Part 1 - Hardware: 1.04 - Motherboards)