
Click on image for an enlarged view
Now that you know where you stand, let's start with the most important component
inside a PC - the Motherboard. The motherboard is the main circuit board in
the computer. It is the biggest circuit board found inside the computer.
- Its main function is to allow the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the "brain"
of the computer, to communicate with other components.
- A motherboard is a thin flat piece of circuit board, usually of green or gold color.
- The motherboard has sockets to connect various components like Keyboard,
Mouse, Disk drives, PC cards etc. to the computer.
- Copper circuit paths called traces that resemble a complicated
roadmap carry signals and voltages across the motherboard.
- The motherboard has multiple layers so that some layers of the board can carry data for the BIOS, Processor and Memory Buses while other layers carry voltage and ground returns without the paths short-circuiting at intersections.
- Chips and sockets are soldered onto the motherboard.
