MotherBoard

Motherboard as the name suggests is the mother of all components of computer.It has different names like System Board or Main Board. Mother boards come in lots of Configuration and types. I have tried to cover almost all Basic types starting from early 90's till date.
Different Series of motherboards:

1. Expansion Slots: Also called I/O Bus Slots are used to connect add-on cards like Graphics card,Lan cards,TV out cards etc.All the cards are connected in parallel i.e any card can be inserted an any of the slots.Types of slots are:
a) ISA slots: ISA means Industry Standard Architect.They are Black in colour, 98-pin connectors. The slots supported16-bit data path.ISA slots were available in 286/386/486-motherboards.
b)PCI slots: PCI means Peripheral Component Interface. They are white in colour , PCI slots supported 64-bit data path that means data now travels much faster than ISA slots.PCI slots were available from 486/pentium series computers.

2.Memory Slots: The slots hold memory (RAM) modules.Different memory slots are:
a)SIMM slots: Single Inline Memory Modules SIMMs come in 30-pin and 72-pin formats.These slots were available upto 386 boards.
b) DIMM slots: Double Inline Memory Modules.They come in different pin formats starting from 100 pin.Dimm slots started from pentium series motherboards.

3.Processor Socket: This is the area where you insert your processor.There are diffrent type of sockets for different type of processors. Some of the Socket types are:

Socket Type	No. of Pins	Supported Processors
Socket 7	321	AMD K5 / K6 / K6-2 / K6-III Cyrix MII ,Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX
Socket 370	370	Intel Celeron Intel Pentium III VIA C3
Socket 775	775	Intel Celeron, Intel Dual-Core , Intel Core 2 Duo , Intel Core 2 Quad Core Intel Pentium 4 Intel Xeon
Socket 1156	1156	Intel Celeron Dual-Core Intel Core i3 Intel Core i5 ,Intel Core i7 ,Intel Pentium Dual-Core , Intel Xeon
Socket 1366	1366	Core i-7 900 series

4.BIOS ROM: Acronym for Basic Input Output System . A permanent memory chip that contains all the basic information about motherboard like display chip , ports and other functions.You can change the BIOS settings by entering BIOS of motherboard for optimum use.

5. CMOS Cell: This is a 3.0 DC volt Battery cell responsible for backing up voltage supply to BIOS .It is this cell which keeps your date and Time up to date.

6. Power Connector: The connector where the motherboard gets the input DC supply from SMPS.
a) AT connector: Available in older motherboards upto 486-supported-boards
This is a 12-pin( 2 x 6pin) connector. Commonly called as P8 and P9 connectors
b) ATX connector: Available on all currently available motherboards.ATX connection comes in 20 pin and 24 pin connector.

7. IDE connector: IDE means Integerated Drive Electronics which is a standard for Disk Inerface.
a) 40-pin connector: This is used to connect Hard Disk Drive. A IDE 40 pin Cable is used as a interface to connect hard disk to motherboard. A maximum of two hard disks can be attached on a single IDE port.
b) 34-pin connector: This is used to connect Floppy Disk Drive. A IDE 34 pin Cable is used as a interface to connect hard disk to motherboard.A maximum of two Floppy Disk Drives can be attached on a single IDE port.

8.SATA connector: "Serial Advanced Technology Attachment," or "Serial ATA." is used to connect hard disk drives to motherboard. The SATA cable has 7 pins and transfers the data at a much better speed as compared to 40-pin cables which work on "Parallel ATA" technology.

9.Co-Processor: A processor which is factory mounted on the motherboard. It helps main CPU in shouldering the responsibilities or functions of main processor.It accelerated the performance of computer by offloading some of the tasks of main processor.

10. Cabinet Connections: The Cabinet , we use, has many connectors of its own to be connected on motherboard like: