Download am - a look into motherboards

AL
k Into
Motherboards
By Amy Madden
How It Is Made
The progression that a
motherboard goes through is
composed of three main
different processes
Design Process
 Fabrication Process
 Assembly Process

Design Process
Schematic drawn by design engineers
Schematic contains logic symbols
representing components and their
connections
Schematic goes to net list
Net List
 Net list contains all parts’ and
symbols’ electrical info
 Net list ran into Computer Aided Design
(CAD)
CAD
 CAD contains libraries representing the
physical part of the logic symbols
 CAD designer places components by hand,
on the computer, and then connects
components
Component Connection



Connected through the interconnects
Interconnects use vias to transition
between multiple layers
Once all errors are corrected and
specific circuits are routed, art work
files are generated for the fabrication
(fab) house
The Fab House
 Art work from design process is put
on fiberglass covered with copper
clad on each side
 Image put on board contains
components’ interconnects
 Copper clad is chemically etched
away based off art work image
The Fab House
 Resin woven cloth are put
between layers
 Pressure and heat fuse layers
together
 Drill stage establishes all holes
and vias
Assembly Process
 Board goes on conveyer belt
 All components are inserted by machine
 Component location provided through
CAD rectangular coordinates (x-y axis)
 Soldering glues all components causing
good electrical connections on board
 Bare board now considered a
motherboard
What is a Motherboard?

The electronic card which connects all
components of a computer together

In other words, it is just a big printed circuit
board with various peripherals and
components plugged into it
Peripherals and Components

What is a peripheral?
Any piece of hardware that is not a
resident on the motherboard

What is a component?
A computer chip that is used to run a
certain function
Components

There are many components on a
motherboard

Each component has its own function
Transistors
 An electronic switch made of semiconductors
turning currents on and off
 N-type Semiconductors: produces electrons
 P-type Semiconductors: produces spaces for
electrons
Transistor Current
 Current flow management:
 Controlling signal goes to the central section
 Controls the flow of current through two outer
sections
 If signal is positive, transistor is turned on,
represented by a 1.
 If a negative charge is fed into the base, the
transistor is turned off, representing a 0.
Capacitors



A capacitor is an electrical component that
stores an electric charge
When the capacitor is holding a charge, it is
represented with a 1
When it is holding no charge, it is represented
by a 0
Voltage Regulators
 Automatically maintains a specific
voltage traveling in an explicit region
 Can raise voltage or lower voltage
depending on circumstance
Microprocessor
 “The Brain of the Computer”
 Component which translates information
and sends it off to the proper area
 Also referred to as the Central
Processing Unit (CPU)
Basic Input/Output System
• Referred to as BIOS
• Built-in software that determines what a
computer can do without accessing
programs from a disk
• Contains all the code required to control
the keyboard, display screen, mouse, and
other functions
How it works


The motherboard contains data lines called
buses
These buses transmit data between the
processor and the components
How it works
 The front side bus between your
processor and chipset determines the
speed of the processor
 Processor interprets binary code
How it works



Use of binary system
A bit is a b inary digit
8 bits = 1 byte
Binary System
 System that uses 0’s and 1’s
 If system signal is on, represented by a 1
 Signal off, represented with a 0
 Signal is determined on or off by the
electronic charge is has or lacks