Dated: 16th December, 2007

A REPORT on:

HARDWARE BASICS

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Computer Engineering Dept. Pranav Nandan
Kathmandu University C.E. 1st Sem.
ROLL NO. 16
 MOTHERBOARD
There are primarily two types of motherboards, AT motherboard, and ATX motherboard. AT
motherboards are older, and not commonly used now a days. The AT and ATX motherboards
differ in the form factor.

Motherboard Components and Function

Function:
The motherboard is a printed circuit board (PCB) that contains and controls the components that
are responsible for processing data.

Description:
The motherboard contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system. Motherboards
are often sold with a CPU. The motherboard has a Real-time clock (RTC), ROM BIOS, CMOS
RAM, RAM sockets, bus slots for attaching devices to a bus, CPU socket(s) or slot(s), cache
RAM slot or sockets, jumpers, keyboard controller, interrupts, internal connectors, and external
connectors.

The bus architecture and type of components on it determine a computers performance. The
motherboard with its ribbon cables, power supply, CPU, and RAM is designated as a "bare
bones" system.

Clock: The motherboard contains a systems clock to synchronize the operation of the bus and
other components. Jumpers on the motherboard allow a user to set different clock rates to work
with the CPU. Other jumpers control other components on the motherboard.
386 motherboards have an extra slot to add a math coprocessor (ALU - arithmetic and logic
unit). 486's and Pentiums have a math coprocessor (ALU) already built into the chip.

• CPU type and speed

• chipset (the specialized chips that control the memory, cache, external buses, and some
peripherals)
• secondary cache type
• types of slots: ISA, EISA, MCA, VESA local bus, or PCI slots
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.

You can use 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. Fortunately , most PCs that use
the mini-DIN for both the keyboard and mouse clearly mark each mini-DIN socket as to its
correct use. Some keyboards have a USB connection, but these are fairly rare compared to
the PS/2 connection keyboards.

2. USB (Universal serial bus):

USB is the General-purpose connection for PC. You can find USB versions of many
different devices, such as mice, keyboards, scanners, cameras, and even printers. a USB
connector's distinctive rectangular shape makes it easily recognizable.

USB has a number of features that makes it particularly popular on PCs. First, USB devices
are hot swappable. You can insert or remove them without restarting your system.
3. Parallel port: Most printers use a special connector called a parallel port. Parallel port
carry data on more than one wire, as opposed to the serial port, which uses only one wire.
Parallel ports use a 25-pin female DB connector. Parallel ports are directly supported by
the motherboard through a direct connection or through a dangle.

4. CPU Chip : The central processing unit, also called the microprocessor performs all the
calculations that take place inside a pc. CPUs come in Variety of shapes and sizes.
Modern CPUs generate a lot of heat and thus require a cooling fan or heat sink. The
cooling device (such as a cooling fan) is removable, although some CPU manufactures sell
the CPU with a fan permanently attached.

5. RAM slots: Random-Access Memory (RAM) stores programs and data currently being
used by the CPU. RAM is measured in units called bytes. RAM has been packaged in many
different ways. The most current package is called a 168-pin DIMM (Dual Inline Memory
module).

6. Floppy controller: The floppy drive connects to the computer via a 34-pin ribbon
cable, which in turn connects to the motherboard. A floppy controller is one that is used to
control the floppy drive.

7. IDE controller: 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.

8. PCI slot: Intel introduced the Peripheral component interconnect bus protocol. The
PCI bus is used to connect I/O devices (such as NIC or RAID controllers) to the main logic
of the computer. PCI bus has replaced the ISA bus.

9. ISA slot: (Industry Standard Architecture) It is the standard architecture of the

Expansion bus. Motherboard may contain some slots to connect ISA compatible cards.

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.

SLOTS

ISA slot (pronounced as separate letters or as eye-sa)

(Industry Standard Architecture) - 1980's - 8 bit + 16 bit path

EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) - 32 bit path

MCA (MicroChannel Bus) - 32 bit path - 64 contacts

IBM's 32-bit bus for the PS/2 machines.

VESA slot (Video Electronics Standards Association) - (also

called VLB & VL-bus) - 32 bit path - About 4 incges longer
than ISA

PCI slot (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - 64 bit path -

33MHz - clocked 132 MB throughput

AGP slot (Accelerated Graphics Port) - 64 bit path - 64

contacts- clocked [(2Xmode)33 Mhz = 66MHz} = 528 MB
thropughput - for true 3D
 One more fig. showing slots

BIOS

Basic Input Output System is an integrated set of program that is required to be executed as
soon as the power button is switched on. The BIOS detects the size of main memory and
initializes it, it also created a link between the CPU and the storage devices, monitors, and
keyboard. In fact it is the most basic program for preparing the computer to boot.

The BIOS program is written on the circuit on the time of manufacturing. It is obviously
particular for a specific motherboard brand, or model. The BIOS contains many options that can
be altered so as to modify boot up options.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

A Central Processing Unit (CPU), known as processor, is the component that plays the main
part of computer; it is the component that has thousands of microscopic integrated circuits which
are responsible for producing the desired output. A CPU that is manufactured as a single
integrated circuit is usually known as a microprocessor. Today the processing capability of CPU
doubles in every 18 months.

There are most commonly two types of CPU: 32-bit and 64-bit. Actually this is the size of
Address Bus). There are even multi-core processors.
The major CPU manufacturers are Intel and AMD (Advanced Micro Devices).

Random Access Memory

Random access memory (RAM) is the workspace for the CPU. The CPU relies on RAM for
most of its memory operations (as we rely on the rough sketches during solving mathematics).
RAM or commonly known as “MEMORY” has memory locations for storing data being used.
There is a special address for particular memory location . RAM allows the stored data to be
accessed in any order-that is, at random, not just in sequence. It costs practically the same time to
access any piece of data stored in a RAM chip. In contrast, disks and the like need a short time to
retrieve a piece of data if it happens to be close to the current position of the read head, and a
long time if the data is far away and the head needs to be repositioned considerably. This time
lag may be considerable for computers but not humans.

Generally, RAM in a computer is considered main memory or primary storage: the working area
used for loading, displaying and manipulating applications and data. This type of RAM is
usually in the form of integrated circuits (ICs). Most personal computers have slots for adding
and replacing memory sticks.

The major RAM vendors are Crucial, Kingston, Samsung and Corsair.

The speed of RAM is 4 or 5 times lesser than the speed of CPU, but to increase the speed we can
use expensive RAM such as Cache RAM.

Hard Disk
A hard disk is the primary storage device for modern computers. The hard disk is also known as
hard disk drives and somtimes also called as HD or HDD. Is a digitally and non-volatile storage
device which stores data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speaking,
"drive" refers to an entire unit containing multiple platters, a read/write head assembly, driver
electronics, and motor while "hard disk" (sometimes "platter") refers to the storage medium
itself. Hard disks were originally developed for use with computers. But the advent of 21st
century saw hard disk being used as storage media in devices like PDA, digital MP3 players,
Cell Phones, Pocket PC etc. Hard disk can access information at very massive speed but still
today’s technology has a vast lag between the CPU and hard disk speed.

Commaly we use hard disk drives of data storage capacity of 7.5 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB, 80 GB, 120
GB, 180 GB or 200 GB.

Hard Disks have massive data storage capacity, as high as 1 Terabytes and more. Therefore they
form the major data storage media in Computers.

Hard Disks are connected to the motherboard through SCSI (Small Computer System Interface),
IDE (Integrated Digital Electronics), SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) or USB
(Universal Serial Bus) cables.

Major Hard Disk vendors are Seagate, Samsung, Mzxtor, fireball etc
Network Card
A network card, network adapter or NIC (network interface controller) is a piece of computer
hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It allows users
to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly.

Whereas network cards used to be expansion cards that plug into a computer bus, the low cost
and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most new computers have a network interface
built into the motherboard. These motherboards either have Ethernet capabilities integrated into
the motherboard chipset, or implemented via a low cost dedicated Ethernet chip, connected
through the PCI (or the newer PCI express bus). A separate network card is not required unless
multiple interfaces are needed or some other type of network is used. Even newer motherboards
may have built-in dual network (Ethernet) interfaces.

The card implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a specific physical
layer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet or token ring. This provides a base for a full
network protocol stack, allowing communication among small groups of computers on the same
LAN and large-scale network communications through routable protocols, such as IP.

Fig: NIC card