Computer motherboard hardware Knowledge motherboard structure

Computer now has become a daily necessities of life, then how much do you know about computers? The following small series for you to organize some common computer hardware knowledge, quickly to learn!

Computer hardware, including all the physical parts of a computer, to differentiate between the data it contains or executes and the software that provides instructions for the hardware to complete the task. Computer hardware mainly includes: chassis, motherboard, bus, power, hard disk, storage controller, interface card, portable storage device, built-in memory, input equipment, output equipment, CPU fan, buzzer and so on.

　　Motherboard

　　Brief introduction

The motherboard hosts the CPU (that is, the central processing Unit), memory (random access memory), and the slot provided for the expansion card (but the CPU and memory are not integrated on the motherboard, not the motherboard's attachment, it is also the computer hardware) motherboard, also called the Host Board (mainboard), system board Systemboard) or motherboard (motherboard), which is installed in the chassis, is one of the most basic and most important part of the computer. The motherboard is generally a 4-6-layer rectangular circuit board, the above installed the main circuit system composed of computers, there are generally north-south bridge Chip (some north-South Bridge Integration) BIOS chip, I/O control chip, keyboard and Panel control switch interface, LED connectors, expansion slots, motherboard and card DC power supply connectors and other components.

The so-called motherboard structure is based on the motherboard on the layout of the components of the arrangement, size, shape, the use of power specifications, such as the development of common standards, all motherboard manufacturers must follow.

The motherboard structure is divided into structures such as at, Baby-at, ATX, Micro ATX, LPX, NLX, Flex ATX, Eatx, Watx, and BTX. Among them, at and Baby-at are many years ago the old motherboard structure, has been eliminated, while LPX, NLX, Flex ATX is an ATX variant, more commonly seen in foreign brands, domestic is still rare; Eatx and WATX are used for server/workstation boards; ATX is the most common motherboard structure on the market, with more expansion slots, 4-6 PCI slots, and most motherboards using this structure; Micro ATX, also known as the Mini ATX, is a simplified version of the ATX structure, which is often referred to as "small board", with fewer expansion slots, 3 or 3 PCI slots, more for branded machines and a minicomputer, while BTX is the latest generation of Intel's motherboard structure, but has not yet become popular and abandoned, Continue to use ATX.

　　Chipset

The chipset (chipset) is the core component of the motherboard, which almost determines the function of the motherboard, which in turn affects the performance of the entire computer system. According to the arrangement on the motherboard of the different positions, usually divided into North Bridge and the bridge chip. North Bridge chip provides the type and frequency of the CPU, memory type and maximum capacity, ISA/PCI/AGP slot, ECC error correction and other support. The bridge chip provides support for KBC (keyboard controller), RTC (real Time clock Controller), USB (Universal serial Bus), Ultra dma/33 Eide data transfer mode, and ACPI (Advanced Energy Management). The North Bridge chip plays a leading role, also known as the main span (Host bridges).

　　Expansion slots

An expansion slot is a slot on the motherboard that is used to fix an expansion card and connect it to the system bus, also known as an expansion slot, expansion slot. Expansion slots are a way to add or enhance computer features and functions. The type and number of expansion slots is an important indicator of whether a motherboard is good or bad. Having multiple types and a sufficient number of expansion slots means that there will be enough scalability and device scalability in the future, whereas in the future there is a huge obstacle to upgrades and device extensions.

　　Main interface

Hard disk Interface: The hard disk interface can be divided into IDE interface and SATA interface. On older motherboards, more than 2 IDE ports are integrated, typically the IDE interfaces are located below the PCI slots and are perpendicular to the memory slots (and horizontally) from the space. On the new motherboard, the IDE interface is mostly reduced, not even, replaced by a SATA interface.

Floppy interface: connected to the floppy drive, more than the IDE interface, slightly shorter than the IDE interface, because it is 34-pin, so the data line is slightly narrower.

COM interface (serial): Most motherboards provide two COM interface, respectively, COM1 and COM2, the role is to connect the serial mouse and external modem and other equipment. The I/O address of the COM1 interface is 03F8H-03FFH, and the interrupt number is IRQ4; The I/O address of the COM2 interface is 02F8H-02FFH and the interrupt number is IRQ3. This shows that the COM2 interface has precedence over the response of the COM1 interface, and it is difficult to find a product based on the interface in the market.

PS/2 interface: The PS/2 interface has a single function and can only be used to connect the keyboard and mouse. In general, the mouse interface is green and the keyboard interface is purple. The transfer rate of the PS/2 interface is slightly faster than the COM interface, but after so many years of use, most motherboards still have the interface, but the mouse and keyboard support the interface is less and fewer, most peripherals manufacturers also no longer introduce the interface based on the peripheral products, more is the introduction of USB interface Peripherals products. But when it's worth mentioning, because the interface is very widely used, many users are more willing to use the PS/2-USB connector to plug into the PS/2, even when using USB, and the life of each generation of keyboard and mouse is very long, and the interface is still used very efficiently, but in the near future, The possibility of being completely replaced by the USB interface is extremely high.

USB Interface: USB interface is now the most popular interface, the largest can support 127 peripherals, and can be independent power, its application is very wide. USB interface can get 500mA of current from the motherboard, support hot pull plug, really do plug and play. A USB interface can also support high-speed and Low-speed USB peripherals access, by a four-core cable connection, of which two are positive and negative power, the other two are data transmission lines. The transmission rate of high-speed peripherals is 12Mbps, and the transmission rate of low-speed peripherals is 1.5Mbps. In addition, the USB 2.0 standard maximum transmission rate is up to 480Mbps. USB 3.0 has already appeared on the motherboard and has started to become popular.

LPT interface (with port): Commonly used to connect printers or scanners. The default interrupt number is IRQ7, with a 25-foot DB-25 connector. The working mode of the same port is mainly three kinds:

1, the SPP standard working mode. SPP data is a half-duplex one-way transmission, the transmission rate is slow, only 15Kbps, but the application is more extensive, generally set as the default working mode.

2, EPP enhanced mode of work. EPP uses two-way HALF-DUPLEX data transmission, its transmission rate is much higher than the SPP, up to 2Mbps, there are many peripherals use this mode of work.

3, ECP expansion mode of work. ECP uses bidirectional Full-duplex data transmission, the transmission rate is higher than EPP, but the support of the device is not much. Printers and scanners that use LPT interfaces are rarely available, mostly for printers and scanners that use USB interfaces.

MIDI interface: The MIDI interface of the sound card and the joystick interface are shared. The two pins in the interface are used to send MIDI signals and can be connected to a variety of MIDI devices, such as electronic keyboards, and it is difficult to find products based on this interface in the market.

SATA interface: SATA is the full name of the serial Advanced Technology attachment (Serial Advanced technology Attachment, an industry-standard serial Hardware driver interface), by Intel, IBM, Dell, APT, Maxtor and Seagate Company jointly proposed hard disk interface specification, at the IDF Fall 2001 Conference, Seagate announced the serial ATA 1.0 standard, officially announced the establishment of SATA specifications. The SATA specification increases the external transmission rate of the hard disk to 150mb/s, 50% higher than the PATA standard ata/100, and about 13% higher than ata/133, and as future versions evolve, the rate of SATA interfaces can be extended to 2X and 4X (300mb/ S and 600mb/s). From its development plan, future SATA will also increase the speed of the interface by increasing the clock frequency, so that the hard drive can also overclocking. [4]

　　Motherboard plane

The plane of the

motherboard is a PCB (printed circuit board), generally using four-layer or six-layer board. In comparison, to save costs, low-grade motherboard for more than four layers: the main signal layer, grounding layer, power layer, secondary signal layer, while the six-layer board has increased the auxiliary power layer and the signal layer, therefore, six-layer PCB motherboard anti-EMI ability is stronger, the motherboard is more stable.