What Is a Motherboard?
The motherboard in a computer connects all the various elements of the computer together. It holds the power supply, memory cards, the video card, drive connectors, the microprocessor and other peripheral connections. Without a motherboard the computer could not function. Since the early motherboard, more and more device connectors have been added.
Significance
By mounting all the internal parts of a computer on one flat board, economics of manufacturing are achieved and the size of the computer is reduced.
Function
Data flows through and is processed in the central processing unit, a chip that performs calculations and sends the results to other elements on the motherboard resulting in a display of results, a printout and/or storage of the information.
Types
As of 2006 there were 11 primary motherboard makers. Four companies, Asustek Computer, Elitegroup Computer Systems, Micro-Star International, and Gigabyte Technology had the dominant share of this market.
Features
Motherboards contain at a minimum the following parts: a microprocessor, a chipset, the BIOS chip, a clock chip, peripheral connection places for internal cards and external devices, a graphics port, hard drive and optical drive interfaces, USB connectors and random access memory slots.
Fun Fact
The first motherboard was developed for the Apple II computer in 1977. Although there were other approaches to personal computers, the success of the Apple in part was due to the integrated aspect of packing the necessary components on one board.
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