Chapter 4 A+ Notes

8/18/2019 Chapter 4 A+ Notes

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1. When selecting a motherboard pay attention to:

a. The Form Factor of the Motherboard

b. Processor Socket Type

c. Chipset Type

d. Number Expansion Slots

e. Number of I/O Ports

f. Maximum Memory Amount

2. All of the above information should be thoroughly researched

ahead of time prior to motherboard selection:

a. Make sure you get Independent Reviews

b. Manufacturer Reviews can be Biased

c. Competition Review can also be Biased

d. Usually you can find the MB manual online



1. You need to be able to recognize the most common parts of a MB

2. You need to be able to understand the technical material you read

3. You must be able to understand motherboard advertising material

4. You must thoroughly understand what you read in the MB Manual



1. You must be able to recognize the key components of a MB

2. These components on every motherboard are not exactly the samelocation

3. Below are the Common Components you should be able to ID:



1. Miscellaneous connectors and jumpers. Connectors are available to

connect to a speaker, to fans, and to the front of the case for power and

displays. They can be located in different places on the motherboard

USB Headers



Front Panel Header



2. Expansion slots. Expansion slots allow you to add additional cards to

a motherboard for additional capabilities. Several different types of

expansion slots are available, including Peripheral Component

Interconnect (PCI), Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), and more.



3. Rear connectors. Several connectors are attached to the motherboard

and are accessible via the rear of the computer. These include connectors

for audio and video Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices and more.



VARIOUS EXAMPLES OF REAR PANNEL CONNECTORS



4. CPU 12-V power. A 4-pin plug from the power supply plugs into

here to provide power to the Central Processing Unit (CPU). On systems

with multiple CPUs, this can be two 4-pin plugs or an 8-pin plug.



CPU 12V 4 PIN CONNECTOR ON MOTHERBOARD



5. CPU Fan. CPUs generate a lot of heat, so it’s common to attach a fan

on top of them. A connection on the motherboard provides power for the

fan. CPU fans are often variable speed so that they can spin faster when

the CPU gets hotter.



CPU WITH HEATSINK AND FAN WIRES TO CONNECTOR



6. Chipset. This consists of one or more integrated circuits (ICs) that

connect the CPU with other components and devices on the system.

Chipsets are designed to work with specific CPUs and are soldered into

the motherboard. They can get hot and often have heat sinks on top of

them designed to dissipate heat.



The Northbridge chipset is always nearest to the CPU. The

Southbridge Chip is always located nearest to the I/O ports and

expansion slots.



7. CPU. The majority of work done by a computer occurs within the processor.The motherboard includes a CPU socket into which a CPU is plugged, and the

CPU is normally covered with a heat sink and a cooling fan.



8. SATA connectors. Most computers support Serial Advanced

Technology Attachment (SATA) drives. SATA connectors have a

distinctive L shape. SATA connectors come in different versions, and

these different versions are identified with different colors. there isn’t a

standard with the colors between MB manufacturers.



9. CMOS Battery. The battery provides power to the Basic

Input/Output System (BIOS) so that certain settings are retained. The

battery is often circular but can have a barrel shape in older machines



10. BIOS jumper. There is often a jumper close to the battery. Shorting

the two pins on this jumper will reset the BIOS password or return the

BIOS settings to the factory defaults.



11. RAM. Motherboards usually have at least two RAM slots, and manyhave four or six. RAM slots are very specific and will accept only

certain types of RAM based on the specifications of the motherboard.



12. IDE connectors. Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE)

connectors are used for EIDE devices such as hard drives and optical

drives. Many systems have replaced EIDE drives with SATA drives, but

you still might see the connectors. When the board includes them, you’ll

see two connectors labeled IDE1 and IDE2, or sometimes IDE0 and

IDE1 or PRI and SEC.



13. P1 power connector. The primary power connection from the

power supply is either a 20-pin connector or a 24-pin connector.



14. Floppy drive connector. This is for 3.5-inch floppy drives. They are

rare today, but if the system has a floppy connector, it is usually by the

IDE connectors.



These connectors can be marked as:

1. FDD

2. FLOPPY DISK

3. Diskette (Older Motherboards)



Motherboards have a variety of different pins that can be connected

with jumpers for different purposes.

The most common reason to access a jumper is to reset the BIOS

password. It’s possible for a user to set the password for the BIOS so

that only that user can access the BIOS settings.

If the user forgets the password, you can clear it with a jumper so

that you are able to manage the BIOS.

The picture above shows the connections to clear the password, with the

jumper removed and lying to the left of the pins. The directions are

printed directly on the motherboard (on the bottom left), and for clarity,

the pins are labeled. If you want to clear the password, you connect the

jumper to pins 1 and 2. By default, this jumper is connected to pins 2

and 3.

Some motherboards include jumpers that affect the clock speed. Bymanipulating the jumpers, hobbyists can cause the CPU to run with a

faster clock.



Motherboards commonly have connectors that are used to run wires to

the front panel. If you look again at Figure 2-8, you can see several front panel connectors on the motherboard (to the right of the password

jumper). Wires are plugged into these connectors with the other ends

going to the appropriate connection on the front panel. Some common

connectors include the following:

■■ Power light. This indicates when the system is turned on from the

front panel power button. In the figure it’s labeled as PWR LED for

power light emitting diode (LED).



Drive activity lights. When the disk drive is actively reading or writing

data, these lights will blink. They are typically red LEDs. Figure 2-8

shows this labeled as HD LED for hard disk drive LED.

■■ Reset button. Many systems include a reset button that will force

the computer to restart. Whenever possible, it’s better to logically shut

down and restart a computer, but if the computer isn’t responsive to any

keyboard or mouse commands, you can force a restart by pressing the

reset button.



■■ USB. On the rear panel, motherboards commonly include USB

connections that are connected directly to the motherboard. However,

USB devices are very popular with users and users often want access to

USB ports on the front panel. Wires run from the USB ports on the front panel to connectors on the motherboard.

■■ Audio. Many systems include one or more audio outputs on the front

panel that are connected from the motherboard. A headphone or speaker

jack is usually a lime green color and includes a headphones icon. Some

systems also have a microphone jack, commonly a pink color, with amicrophone icon.



The motherboard form factor determines the size of the board and

its features that make it compatible with power supplies and cases.

The most popular motherboard form factors are ATX, microATX (asmaller version of ATX), and Mini-ITX.

Advanced Technology Extended (ATX ). This has been the standard

used in many systems since 1995 and is still used today. It added

capabilities and improved on the original AT motherboard design

ATX FULL SIZE MOTHERBOARD: 12 x 9.6 Inches:



Micro ATX Motherboard: 9.6 x 9.6 inches

Micro-AT X (mAT X or μATX). This is a smaller version of the

ATX and is very popular with desktop computers. It is designed to

be backward-compatible with the ATX form factor so that it can fitin any ATX case and has the same power connectors. Because it is

smaller, it has fewer expansion slots.



Mini – ITX Motherboard: 6.7 x 6.7

ITX motherboards originated with VIA technologies and come in

several different small form factor (SFF ) designs, including mini-

ITX, nano-ITX, and pico-ITX. They are referred to as embedded

boards and consume very little power compared to ATX-based

boards. They don’t need to be cooled with fans.

Mini-IT X. These are envisioned for use in home theater systems.

They can fit into any case by using standard ATX mount points.



Nano-ITX Motherboard: : 4.7 X 4.7 INCHES

Nano-ITX boards measure 120 × 120 mm (4.7 × 4.7 in), and are fully

integrated, very low power consumption motherboards with many

uses, but targeted at smart digital entertainment devices such asPVRs, set-top boxes, media centers, car PCs, and thin devices.



The Pico-ITX form factor specifications call for the board to be 10 ×

7.2 cm (3.9 × 2.8 in), which is half the area of Nano-ITX. The

processor can be a VIA C7, a VIA Eden V4, a VIA Nano or any

other that uses VIA's NanoBGA2 technology for speeds up to 1.5

GHz, with 128KB L1 & L2 caches.

Pico-ITX. These extremely small boards can be embedded in

different types of mobile devices. The Pico-ITX has been adopted as

an open standard by the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group,

or SFF-SIG.



COMPARISON SIDE-BY-SIDE OF FORM FACTORS

SUMMARY CHART FOR FORM FACTORS



Sizes and hole positions for the ATX, microATX, and Mini-

ITX motherboards



Balanced Technology Extended (BTX) Form Factor

1. Balanced Technology eXtended, is a standard developed by Intel primarily to improve processor cooling compared to ATX

2. It provides a more direct path for air from the front of the case, across

the processor, and out the back of the case.

3. ATX power supplies work (provided their cables reach), and

expansion cards compatible with an ATX system are also compatible

with a BTX system.

4. BTX differs from ATX primarily in the case, motherboard, and

processor heatsink. The motherboard is considerably rearranged, and

mounted on the opposite wall of the case.

5. Air is meant to flow through essentially the center of the case in a

straight line, rather than snaking a path from the front-bottom to the top-

back as in a typical ATX system.

6. Desktop BTX Form-Factor: History and Obsolescence

Intel Corp. first presented its Balanced Technology eXtended (BTX)

form-factor for mainboards and PC cases in September, 2003, at Intel

Developer Forum Fall 2003. The world’s largest chipmaker presented

the form-factor as the future of personal computers and noted that it

would solve many problems of Intel’s own processors back then, e.g.,

necessity to cool-down very hot Pentium 4 microprocessors. However,

BTX has failed to become popular due to dozens of reasons.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/not-survived-2009_9.html






Some believed that BTX would solve the issues with cooling of power

hungry central processing units (CPUs) and graphics cards since a

special fan located right beside CPU would suck in cool air from the

outside and blow it onto the microprocessor and in the direction of the

graphics card.

While the efficiency of such approach is indisputable, the

disadvantages of the BTX lead to its very slow start and eventual

fading into oblivion.

Here is close look of a ATX motherboard




http://sciencecorp.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/atx-motherboard-parts-terminology.jpg




And here is a close look of a BTX motherboard

http://sciencecorp.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/btx-btx-mobo.jpg



Let’s look at reality here and What you need to be

able to do for the real world.



1. It is impossible to memorize every technical fact about

Processors and Processor Sockets. SO DON’T EVEN TRY!!! It will just take away time for tons of other information you need to

learn.

2. Even highly educated Electrical Engineers who design

sophisticated electronic equipment do not try to memorize

every mathematical design formula for circuits. They use

REFERENCE MANUALS AND COMPUTERS to do the job.

3. We are not going to lecture on every numerical specification

from the text book. We will cover the most important things

that you should know. These will include things such as

Acronyms for Socket Types and essential information on

sockets, which is easy to remember.

4. While the Cengage textbook A+ Guide to Managing And

Maintaining Your PC, 8th Edition attempts to provide you with

a plethora of technical facts, I as your Instructor do not even

attempt to memorize and know every technical fact. NEITHER

SHOULD YOU!!!



5. I am going to use material from the Microsoft CompTIA A+

Training Kit. This information is precisely summarized and gets

right to the point. I will supplement this information with

information from various other resources. This will help you

get a good understanding of motherboards

6. Finally, the hands on labs and in-class exercises will help you

become totally comfortable with this information on

Motherboards.

7. Technology moves at such a blistering pace, even the

literature, both written and on the Internet, cannot keep up

with these changes, and you won’t be able to keep up either.

So focus on memorizing the facts that your instructor presentsin these notes that follow. It cuts through all of the fluff and

fodder that obscures what you really need to know in the

practical world.



1. Through the Hole Technology Components:

Notice that all the components on this circuit board are what we call

“Through-the-Hole” technology. All components have pins that

protrude down through holes and are soldered in place on the circuit

board.



Here you see a through-the-hole component being soldered by hand. In

manufacturing this is done by machine Called Wave Soldering

2. Surface Mount Technology:



Notice that all of these components are soldered on the surface of the

circuit board. Their leads do not protrude through any holes.

Through Hole Mounting: This mounting technique involves

different components which have lead wires that are led to the

board through holes, hence the name. In this method, leads

rely on holes in a multilayer PCB. The leads are then finally

soldered to offer permanent mounting. The technology finds

usage in



DIP aka Dual Inline Packaging : DIP

Pin Grid Array Package: PGA

Surface Mounting: This is a relatively new mounting method

worked out seeing a tremendous increase in the number of

pins in Integrated Circuits. As demand for smaller weight and

size of packaged weight increased, there was felt a need for a

new, improved technology that came to be known as surface

mount technology (SMT).

http://the-engineer.hubpages.com/hub/Benefits-of-Surface-Mount-Technology-SMT








1. A pin grid array (PGA) socket has holes aligned in uniform rows

around the socket to receive the pins on the bottom of the processor.

This socket 7 is a PGA This is a socket 370 PGA



Notice the processors have delicate gold pins on bottom

THIS IS A CLOSE UP OF A STANDARD PIN GRID ARRAY (PGA)

Early Intel processors used PGA sockets, but they caused problems because the

small delicate pins on the processor were easily bent as the processor was installed

in the socket.



2. LGA stands for: Land Grid Array

The land grid array (LGA) is a type of surface-mount packaging for integratedcircuits (ICs) that is notable for having the pins on the socket rather than the

integrated circuit. An LGA can be electrically connected to a printed circuit board

(PCB) either by the use of a socket or by soldering directly to the board.

(Land Grid Array) A chip package with a very high density of contacts. LGAs

differ from traditional chips with protruding pins that are inserted into a

socket. An LGA chip has flat pads on the bottom of its package that touch

contacts on the motherboard socket.

LGA 775 CPU SOCKET ON MOTHER BOARD: 775 PINS



LGA 775 CPU:

A land grid array (LGA) socket has blunt protruding pins on the socket

that connect with lands or pads on the bottom of the processor. The firstLGA socket was the LGA775 socket. It has 775 pins.



Another LGA socket is the LGA1366. LGA sockets generally give

better contacts than PGA sockets, and the processor doesn’t have the

delicate pins so easily damaged during an installation. It has 1366 pins.



Some sockets can handle a processor using a flip-chip land grid array (FCLGA)

processor package or a flip chip pin grid array (FCPGA) package. The chip is

flipped over so that the top of the chip is on the bottom and makes contact with thesocket.

The LGA1155 socket has a flip chip version, which is called the FCLGA1155socket.

The two sockets are not compatible.

.



A staggered pin grid array (SPGA) socket has pins staggered over the

socket to squeeze more pins into a small space.

The benefit of using a staggered pin grid array, versus the previous

standard of aligned rows and columns, is that the SPGA positioning

allows for closer pins, and thus more pins over a given surface area.

This can decrease the size of a microchip or provide larger transfer

capacity in a similar-size chip.

The socket 7 is an example of a SPGA Socket. It is also called a ZIF

socket: ZIF – Zero Insertion Force



A ball grid array (BGA) connection is not really a socket. The processor is

soldered to the motherboard, and the two are always purchased as a unit. For

example, the little Atom processors often use this technology with a Mini-ITXmotherboard in low-end computers or home theater systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_Flat_Package

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-mount



Zero insertion force (ZIF) is a type of IC socket or electrical connector that

requires very little force for insertion. With a ZIF socket, before the IC is inserted,a lever or slider on the side of the socket is moved, pushing all the sprung contacts

apart so that the IC can be inserted with very little force - generally the weight of

the IC itself is sufficient and no external downward force is required.

The lever is then moved back, allowing the contacts to close and grip the pins of

the IC.

ZIF sockets are much more expensive than standard IC sockets and also tend

to take up a larger board area due to the space taken up by the lever mechanism.Therefore they are only used when there is a good reason to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_socket



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_connector







THIS IS ALSO CALLED A ZIF SOCKET. THIS ZIF SOCKET IS

FOR INSERTING AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT, BETTER

KNOWN AS AN “IC”

THIS IS AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT THIS IS A NON ZIF IC SOCKET



When you compare Intel Sockets and AMD sockets you find the

following:

1. Intel Processors nowadays mostly use LGA Sockets

2. AMD Processors mostly used PGA Architecture

3. Most AMD Processor Sockets use ZIF Sockets

4. A couple of examples are show below:

Notice that this FM2 Socket for AMD processors is in fact a ZIF

Socket.



CPU Chipsets

A CPU chipset is one or more ICs that provide the primary interface

between the CPU and the rest of the system.

The two primary manufacturers of CPUs are Intel and Advanced Micro

Devices (AMD).

The two primary manufacturers of chipsets that work with these CPUsare also Intel and AMD.

Older chipsets divided their functions into north bridge and south

bridge.

Newer CPUs take over the functions of the north

bridge.



Figure 2-6 North bridge and south bridge chipset.

North bridge. The north bridge, also called the memory

controller hub ( MCH ), is the primary interface for high-speed

devices such as the CPU, RAM, and, if it exists, a dedicated

graphics slot. It is always located closest to the CPU

South bridge. The south bridge provides an interface to low-

speed devices, which is essentially everything else in the system.

It is also called the I/O Controller Hub (ICH).

It is always located nearest the I/O ports and expansion slots.



The Super I/O is a separate chip that provides connections to

different types of legacy, or older, I/O devices via a serial port, a

parallel port, the keyboard, or the mouse.

It includes a universal asynchronous receiver tr ansmitter (UART) chip

needed to translate data between serial and parallel connections.

Most new devices use USB, so the Super I/O chip isn’t needed or

included on many current systems.

THE IC IN THE MIDDLE IS THE SUPER I/O CHIP



Notice the Super I/O Chip is for older legacy technology



Many newer motherboards using both Intel and AMD CPUs use a

single chipset and have moved the functionality of the north bridgeto the CPU.

Figure 2-7 shows the configuration for the Intel X79 Express Chipset. If

you compare this to Figure 2-6, you can see the differences.

Instead of using a single front side bus for graphics,RAM, and the

chipset, the CPU has three separate busses: a PCIe bus for graphics, a

data bus for RAM, and a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus for the

chipset. The chipset takes care of the rest.

NOTE: HERE WE HAVE A SINGLE CHIP FOR THE CHIPSET



X58 Chipset: 2008

1. With Previous chips the MCH was a part of North Bridge

2. As of the X58 release the MCH is contained in the processor

3. With the Intel Core i7: Memory connects directly with the processor

4. 64-bit Front Side Bus Replaced with Quick Path Interconnect (QPI)

The Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI)[1][2]

is a point-to-point -

processor interconnect developed by Intel which replaced the front-side

bus (FSB) in Xeon, Itanium, and certain desktop platforms starting in

2008.

It was designed to compete with HyperTransport that had been used

by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) since around 2003

Prior to the name's announcement, Intel referred to it as Common

System Interface (CSI).[3]

Earlier incarnations were known as Yet

Another Protocol (YAP) and YAP+.

Key Advantages

Higher bus bandwidth due to point-to-point links

Efficient memory organization and lower memory access latencies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QPI#cite_note-Intel_QPI-1





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_connection


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QPI#cite_note-3

















1. Have Memory and Graphics controller inside the processor

2. Does not use the traditional North Bridge and South Bridge

3. Processor interfaces directly the PCI Express 2.0 bus

4. Second Generation Core i7, use the LGA1155 or the LGA2011

socket, and Sandy Bridge motherboards use DDR3 memory

Ivy Bridge is the codename for a line of processors based on the 22 nm

manufacturing process developed by Intel.

Ivy Bridge processors are backwards compatible with the Sandy Bridge

platform, but such systems might require a firmware update

I vy Br idge chipsets. Third-generation processors and chipsets by Intel,

released in 2012 and codenamed Ivy Bridge, use less power, squeeze

more transistors into a smaller space, and perform better than earlier

products. Ivy Bridge chipsets include B75, Q75, Q77, H77, Z75, and

Z77. Several Ivy Bridge processors use the LGA1155 socket for

backward compatibility with earlier motherboards. The Ivy Bridge

chipset uses a single Platform Controller Hub.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_codenames










1. There are many types of computer buses.

2. Let us first look at a definition and what a bus looks like:

In computer communications, a bus is a group of wires that connect

components.

The system bus is the wires, or traces, on the motherboard that

provide the main communication path between the CPU and

memory. It also carries power and control signals to devices.

A. Data SignalsB. Address Signals

C. Control Signals

D. Power Signals



The common bus sizes that exist:

1. 8-bit Bus2. 16-bit Bus

3. 32-bit Bus

4. 64-bit Bus

5. 128-bit Bus



Motherboards include one or more oscillator crystals, which vibrate at

specific frequencies when a voltage is applied. The output is a sine wavethat alternates at a specific frequency such as 66 MHz or 100 MHz.



Important facts to remember about bus frequency:

1. Bus Frequency is related to the speed of data transfer

2. The higher the Bus Frequency (MHz) the faster the data transfer

3. The higher the Bus Frequency the faster the cycles per second (Hz)

4. The Front Side Bus, for example, is multiplied to increase its

frequency up to the desired speed for the CPU

EXAMPLE:

Front Side Bus: 800 MHz

Clock Multiplier: 3x



CPU Frequency: 2400 MHz = 2.4 GHz

Manipulation of the FSB Speed and Multiplier (Done in the BIOS

Settings) is used when Overclocking a PC. Overclocking and its

effects will be explained at a late time.

1. The speed of these devices is measured in MHz

2. Remember: 1 Hertz (Hz) is 1 Cycle per Second

3. Megahertz – MHz is 1 Million Cycles Per Second

4. Gigahertz – GHz is 1 Billion Cycles Per Second

5. Common Ratings Examples for Devices:

a. Memory: 1333 MHz, 1866 MHz

b. FSB: 2600 MHz, 2000 MHz, 1333 MHz, etc.



1. A bus is simply a circuit that connects one part of the

motherboard to another.

2. The more data a bus can handle at one time, the faster it allows

information to travel

3. The speed of the bus, measured in megahertz (MHz)

4. FSB speed can dramatically affect a computer's performance.



1. Notice the following:

a. The wider the bus in bits the faster the throughput

b. The higher the bus frequency in MHz the faster the throughput

1: DATA BUS – TWO WAY BUS

A.

CARY DATA BETWEEN THE COMPONENTS

2: ADDRESS BUS – 1 WAY BUS

A. CARRY ADDRESSING INFORMATION

B. ADRESSING FOR THE VARIOUS COMPONENTS

3. CONTROL BUS – 2 WAY BUS

A. CARRYING CONTROL SIGNALS

B. IRQ SIGNALS

C. DRIVE CONTROL SIGNALS, ETC



Some of the other types of busses you’ll come across include the

following:

■■ Back side bus. The back side bus is the connection between the

CPU and its internal cache memory.



■■ Front side bus (FSB). The front side bus refers to the connection

between the CPU and the supporting chipset on the motherboard.

The speed of this is frequently used to identify the speed of the CPU.

Newer systems have replaced the front side bus with a Direct Media

Interface (DMI).



In computers, the front side bus (FSB) is a term for the physical bi-

directional data bus that carries all electronic signal information between

the central processing unit (CPU) and other devices within the system

such as random access memory (RAM), the memory containing the

system BIOS, AGP video cards, PCI expansion cards, hard disks, etc.

Bus speed usually refers to the speed of the front side bus (FSB),

which connects the CPU to the northbridge. FSB speeds can range

from 66 MHz to over 800 MHz. Since the CPU reaches the memory

controller though the northbridge, FSB speed can dramatically affect a

computer's performance.



The frequency at which a processor (CPU) operates is determined

by applying a clock multiplier to the front-side bus (FSB) speed in

some cases. For example, a processor running at 3200 MHz might be

using a 400 MHz FSB. A MULTIPLIER OF 8 WOULD BE USEDHERE. 8 x 400 – 3200MHZ or 3.2 GHZ

■■

Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus. This connects the CPU andnewer chipsets in place of the front side bus.

The Direct Media Interface (DMI) was the link between the

northbridge and southbridge on a computer motherboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge_%28computing%29


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge_%28computing%29



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard








DMI shares many characteristics with PCI Express, using multiple lanes

and differential signaling to form a point-to-point link.

DMI 2.0, introduced in 2011, doubles the transfer rate to 20 Gbit/s with

a ×4 link. It is used to link an Intel CPU with the Intel PlatformController Hub (which supersedes the historic Northbridge/Southbridge

implementation).[

I/O BUSES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_signaling






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_Controller_Hub




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Media_Interface#cite_note-1












8-BIT ISA EXPANSION SLOTS ON OLDER MOTHERBOARDS (SHORTER)

16-BIT ISA EXPANSION SLOTS THE LONGER SLOTS

OBSOLETE



OLDER COMPUTER EXPANSION BUS STANDARD: OBSOLETE

The Black Slots are: 16-bit ISA

The brown slots are 32-bit EISA



The Extended Industry Standard Architecture (in practice

almost always shortened to EISA and frequently pronounced

"eee-suh") is a bus standard for IBM PC compatible

computers.

It was announced in September 1988 by a consortium of PC

clone vendors (the "Gang of Nine") as a counter to IBM's use

of its proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) in its PS/2

series.[1]

EISA extends the AT bus, which the Gang of Nine retroactively

renamed to the ISA bus to avoid infringing IBM's trademarkon its PC/AT computer, to 32 bits and allows more than one

CPU to share the bus. The bus mastering support is also

enhanced to provide access to 4 GB of memory. Unlike MCA,

EISA can accept older XT and ISA boards— the lines and slots

for EISA are a superset of ISA.

EISA was much favored by manufacturers due to the

proprietary nature of MCA, and even IBM produced somemachines supporting it.

It was somewhat expensive to implement (though not as

much as MCA), so it never became particularly popular in

desktop PCs. However, it was reasonably successful in the

server market,[2]

as it was better suited to bandwidth-

intensive tasks (such as disk access and networking).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consortium







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Channel_architecture


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Architecture#cite_note-announced-1



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer/AT



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_mastering



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XT_bus_architecture



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Architecture#cite_note-Daily1998-2
























Most EISA cards produced were either SCSI or network cards.

EISA was also available on some non-IBM compatible

machines such as the AlphaServer, HP 9000-D, SGI Indigo2 and

MIPS Magnum. By the time there was a strong market need for a bus of these

speeds and capabilities for desktop computers, the VESA Local

Bus and later PCI filled this niche and EISA vanished into

obscurity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaServer



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_9000


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Indigo2



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPS_Magnum


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_Local_Bus




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect













VESA = VIDEO ELECTRONICS STANDARDS ASSOCIATION:



OBSOLETE ALSO: THE PS/2 PC WAS A MISERABLE

FAILURE BY IBM



1. PCI = PERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERCONNECT

2. 32-bit Data Path

3. Supply Voltage: 5V4. Bus Frequency: 33 MHz

5. Adapter Cards in Synch with CPU

1. 64-bit Data Path

2. Supply Voltage: 3.3V

3. 2x the Throughput than PCI version 14. The Cards not are not compatible with the 5V PCI slot

–



PCI SOUND CARD

Conventional PCI is no longer evolving and ended

up with four types of slots and six possible PCI card

configurations to use these slots. These slots and

cards include 32-bit PCI and 64-bit PCI-X, all shown

in the figure below:



1. Not Backward Compatible with PCI or PCI-X2. PCIe is replacing PCI, PCI-X and AGP Buses

3. PCIe will coexist will conventional PCI

4. PCIe uses a Serial Bus while PCI and PCI-X use Parallel Buses

5. The serial buses are faster than the parallel buses

6. PCIe buses have a direct link to the Northbridge or CPU



1. AGP is based on PCI,

2. Designed especially for the throughput demands of 3-D graphics

3. Faster than standard PCI Graphics

4. The AGP channel is 32 bits wide and runs at 66 MHz. This

translates into a total bandwidth of 266 MBps, as opposed to the PCI

bandwidth of 133 MBps.

5. AGP also supports two optional faster modes, with throughputs of 533

MBps and 1.07 GBps

Motherboard video slots and video cards used the Accelerated

Graphics Port (AGP) standards for many years, but AGP has been

replaced by PCI Express. Even though AGP is a dying technology, you

still need to know how to support it in case you are ever called on toreplace an AGP video card or a motherboard with an AGP slot.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PCI.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/throughput.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/3/3_D_graphics.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MHz.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/bandwidth.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MBps.html











The primary advantage of AGP over PCI is that it provides a dedicated

pathway between the slot and the processor rather than sharing the

PCI bus. In addition to a lack of contention for the bus, the directconnection allows for higher clock speeds.

An AGP card



Definition:

A riser card is a board that plugs into the system board and provides

additional slots for adapter cards. Because it rises above the system

board, it enables you to connect additional adapters to the system in an

orientation that is parallel to the system board and thus save space

within the system case.



A daughter board is a general computing and electronics term for any

circuit board that plugs into another.

In personal computing, a daughter board can be used as a more

general term for adapter cards. Sometimes, in casual usage, the term

“daughter board” is used interchangeably with the term riser card,

but technically they are not the same.

the HS232 is an RS232 Daughter board with I/O. It has been designed to

fit onto a H-Series SBC Main Board, and in a ENC1593NBK or

ENC1593NGY enclosure. This board will normally be used together

with a H-Series SBC Main board, an enclosure and two enclosure panels

(face plates) - see picture to the right. All terminal block contacts are

numbered on the enclosure panel.



1. Is Software Code Instructions contained in Hardware

2. Hardware Chips containing Software is called Firmware

3. The BIOS settings is also called the CMOS Settings

4. CMOS = Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

5. The BIOS provides initial instructions to start the sytem:

a. How to locate the HDD

B. How to start up the operating system

6. BIOS Code is referred to as the Bootstrap Code

7. Starting a computer up is called Booting

8. The BIOS instructions are contained in ROM Chips

9. These ROM IC’s (Integrated Circuits) have gone through many

changes over the years. The types of ROM BIOS CHIPS are shown

below. Understanding these types of chips is important and you will

most likely have questions on the A+ Certification Exam:



Definition:

Firmware is software stored in memory chips that retains data

whether or not power to the computer is on. It is most often written

on an electronically reprogrammable chip so it can be updated with a

special program to fix any errors that might be discovered after a

computer is purchased, or to support updated hardware components

Acronym for Erasable programmable r ead- only memory , and

pronounced eprom , EPROM is a special type of memory that retainsits contents until it is exposed to ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet

light clears its contents, making it possible to reprogram the

memory.

EPROM: 256KB

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/memory.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/clear.html







Inside the little EPROM Windows the wires and light-sensitive cell

The EPROM windows are normally covered with a label as above



To write to and erase an EPROM, you need a special device called a

PROM programmer or PROM burner .

THIS IS AN EPROM PROGRAMMER. IT IS HOOKED UP TO A

SERIAL PORT ON A PC AND A SOFTWARE PACKAGE IS USED

TO WRITE THE NEW INSTRUCTIONS TO THE EPROM

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/write.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/device.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PROM.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/programmer.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PROM.html





EMPROM ULTRAVIOLET OVEN: EPROM ERASER

An EPROM differs from a PROM in that a PROM can be written to

only once and cannot be erased. EPROMs are used widely in personal

computers because they enable the manufacturer to change the contents

of the PROM before the computer is actually shipped. This means that

bugs can be removed and new versions installed shortly before delivery.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/personal_computer.html




http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/computer.html



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/bug.html








A programmable read-only memory (PROM) or field

programmable read-only memory (FPROM) or one-time

programmable non-volatile memory (OTP NVM) is a form of

digital memory where the setting of each bit is locked by a fuse

or antifuse. They are a type of ROM (read-only memory)

meaning the data in them is permanent and cannot be changed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuse_%28electrical%29



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifuse



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-only_memory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-only_memory





1. There is not A window for Ultra-Violet Light

2. The EEPROM can be erased and reprogrammed using Electrical

Signals.

3. The signal voltage is raised to a higher level to erase the EEPROM,

then it is written to.



Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer storage

medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. Flash

memory developed from EEPROM.

1. This is the Overwriting of Existing Firmware

2. Flashing is the process of Updating the Firmware

3. Flashing is done by special software

4. You should always back up the firmware before flashing it.

Every motherboard has a flash ROM chip, called the system ROM chip

because it contains code that enables your CPU to talk to the basic

hardware of your PC (see Figure 8-9). As aluded to earlier, the system

ROM holds BIOS for more than just the keyboard controller. It also

stores programs for communicating with the floppy drive, hard drives,

optical drives, display devices, USB ports, and other basic devices on

your motherboard.



As you study computers, you’re likely to come across the term

complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). When referring

to BIOS and CMOS, there are differences.

■■ BIOS. This is the firmware. It stores the instructions for starting

the computer and includes a program that can be used to change

some settings. The firmware can be updated in a procedure referred

to as fl ashing the BI OS (covered later in this chapter).

■■ CMOS. This holds only the user-configurable BIOS settings,

such as the current time. Users can change these settings byaccessing the BIOS application. CMOS is volatile, meaning that the

data is lost if the system is turned off.

Motherboards include a CMOS battery to retain the CMOS data

even if the system is turned off.

That’s probably clear to you:

1. BIOS is the application2. CMOS is the data

3. CMOS battery keeps CMOS powered to retain the settings.



Unfortunately, it’s misleading. Technically, CMOS is a specific type

of chip that you’ll rarely find on any motherboard, but there is still

a need to store the user-configurable settings. Instead of CMOS, the

data can be stored on battery-powered static RAM. Sometimes, it’sstored in the same chip as the real- time clock that is keeping time.

Just like CMOS, these chips are powered by a battery when the

system is turned off to ensure the system keeps these settings.

When the BIOS is using newer flash memory, the user-configurable

data is often stored on the same chip as the BIOS application. Due to

how flash memory stores data, it doesn’t even need a battery.

However, the real-time clock still needs a battery to keep time whenthe system is turned off.

Even though systems no longer have CMOS, and this battery isn’t

powering CMOS, it is still commonly called the CMOS battery . Even

the CompTIA objectives refer specifically to CMOS and the CMOS

battery.



1. When you purchase a motherboard, the package includes an I/O shield.

2. The I/O Shield is a plate that has holes for the I/O Ports

3. Is designed for the case form factor

4. It is labeled to show what the ports are.

5. It also helps provided grounding and shield of the ports to prevent interference



I/O shield:

1) Shield to keep electro-magnetic radiation inside of the case

2) Dust Cover / Air circulation director: The fan in the power supply shall draw air throughout

the entire case and not just along the short way from the I/O area to the power supply that'susually right above.

3) Aesthetics: No ugly hole.



Serial Port I/O Module

Serial and Parallel Port I/O Module



USB I/O Module

Chapter 4 A+ Notes

Documents

Transcript of Chapter 4 A+ Notes