What Is A Motherboard?
A personal computer (PC) electronic motherboard is a manufactured plastic sheet made to hold an electronic circuit which sits on a base unit or case. The motherboard has holes or slots. These slots connect all of the components of a PC together. So a slot may hold for example sound cards, video cards, network cards and hard drives.
What Are The Slots, Sockets And Ports?
Connects are made via slots, sockets and ports. Here are a list of them and what they are for.
PS/2 (Personal system 2) Ports:-Green - Mouse / Purple — Keyboard (Replaced by USB (Universal serial bus) on newer motherboards
Integrated Network Card:-Ethernet LAN (Local Area Network) Port — File sharing, internet access, Remote Desktop etc
USB (Universal Serial Bus) Ports:-External Devices e.g. Hard drives, Scanners, Printers, Mouse, Keyboard
Serial Port:-Old Input devices e.g. Mouse and Keyboard
Parallel Port (Standard Printer Port):-Printers (Replaced by USB (Universal Serial Bus) on newer motherboards
Integrated Graphics Card:-VGA (Visual Graphics Array or Adapter) Port- VDU (Visual Display Unit) Monitor
Integrated Sound Card:-Game Port-Joysticks/ (Green) Audio out-PC Speakers/ (Blue) Line in-Musicians Keyboard/ (Pink) Mic-Microphone
ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) Socket:-CPU (Central Processing Unit)
Slot 1:-CPU (Central Processing Unit)
SIMM (Single In-Line Memory Module) Memory Slot:-RAM (Random Access Memory) Replaced with DIMM (Dual In-Line Memory Module)
DIMM (Dual In-Line Memory Module) Memory Slot:-RAM (Random Access Memory)
North Bridge Chipset:-Bridge connection between CPU (Central Processing Unit) and RAM (Random Access Memory)
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semi Conductor) Battery:-Life supply for BIOS Chipset and Keeping Date/Time
BIOS (Binary or Basic Input/output System) Chipset:-Keeps note of system configuration/Date and time
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Slot:-Graphics cards, Sound cards, Network cards, Modem cards, T.V. cards etc (Replaced with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Slots)
AMR (Audio/Modem Riser) Slot:-Audio cards and modem cards (Replaced with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Slots)
CNR (Communication Network Riser) Slot:-Network cards and Sound cards (Replaced with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Slots)
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Slots:-Graphics cards, Sound cards, Network cards, Modem cards, T.V. cards etc
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) Slot:-Graphics cards
FDD1 (Floppy Disk Drive) Controller:-Floppy Disks (34 pin)
IDE1 (Integrated Drive Electronics) Controller:-Hard Drives (40 Pin)
IDE2 (Integrated Drive Electronics) Controller:-CD-ROM/DVD ROM/CD-RW/DVD-RW (40 Pin)
South Bridge Chipset:-Bridge connection between the Slots and Controllers
ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) Power Supply Connector:-PSU (Power Supply Unit)