MOTHER BOARD
A motherboard is an electronic circuit board in a computer which interconnects
hardware devices attached to it — which is to say, all of the system hardware. At a
minimum it includes one or more Central Processing Units (CPU), and the main
processing activity of the computer takes place on it.
It was called a"mother" board in relation to these. A PC motherboard generally has a series ofslots, allowing to be plugged in directly to CPU. Other connectors on themotherboard allow communication through cables with various peripheral devices,
both inside and outside the computer case
Ports
Ports are used by a motherboard to interface with electronics both inside and outside ofthecomputer.Integrated ports arethose that are part of, directly wired to, the motherboard. Internal integrated ports are used to connect devices inside the
system unit. Externalports may be connected to the motherboard directly (integrated) or by circuit boards that are inserted
into slots on the motherboard. It is often possible to add new external ports by inserting such a circuit board into an openslot.
Ps/2
PS/2 ports were for connecting peripherals such as your mouse and
keyboard to the computer, but are now outdated. PS/2 based mouse and
keyboards have now been replaced by USB ports as the popular standard. This trend for USB over PS/2 started in circa 2004.
RJ-45
RJ45. An 8-pin/8-position plug or jack is commonly used to connect computers onto Ethernet-based local area networks (LAN). Two wiring schemes–T568A and T568B–are used to terminate the twisted-pair cable onto the connector interface.
USB
USB or Universal Serial Bus, is a connectivity specification, currentlyat
version 3 (V3). They are very common today, connecting flash drives and many peripherals. Modern desktop systems have should have 4-8 on the back of thecomputer and at least two on the front.USB is one of the most successful interconnect in computing history. V1 operates at1.5 Mbps (low speed) or 12 Mbps (full speed), V2 (high speed) at 480 Mbps, and
V3 (super speed) at up to 5Gbps. It can be found in over 2 billion PC and mobiledevices. USB has strong consumer brand recognition and a reputation for ease-of-
use.
Serial
An outdated piece of technology, serial ports (5 above) were most often used to connect the mouse and keyboard. By circa 2000, most personal computers stopped
relying on serial ports and were replaced by PS/2 and/or USB ports.
AUDIO PORT
The audio input and stereo output ports connect to external speakers, a
microphone, head sets, and possibly a game. The external ports are color codedby industry standard.
Firewell
Technically known as the IEEE 1394 interface, but dubbed by Apple as Firewire this connection medium hoped to surpass USB in terms of speed and popularity. While it did outperform USB v2 in speed tests, uptake was very limited due to the existing widespread use of USB.
Firewire is the standard for high definition audio and video transfer and may be found on many digital camcorders. Also known by the brand names i.LINK and Lynx
Graphic card
Graphics cards are also called video cards or a video adapter. They are in all PCs, but may be integrated on the motherboard. Graphic cards generate output images that can be displayed on the monitor. While many graphics cards are built into the
motherboard these days, enthusiasts will invest in stand-alone graphics cards with more powerful processing capabilities. This allows for heavy image editing, or better rendering and frame rates in computer games.
Graphics cards are designed to offload rendering from the CPU. Graphics cards are powered by the motherboard and require a PCI-X or PCIe slot to install. Some cards
require more power and thus will need a 6-8 pin connector that runs directly to the power supply. Graphics cards also include on-board memory for efficient rendering. Typical sizes include 128-1024MB of memory. Today, high end graphics cards have
multiple core processors that are largely parallel to increase texture fill and process more 3D objects in real time.
Sound card
A sound card, also referred to as an audio card, facilitates the input and output of
audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs.
Sound cards for computers were uncommon until 1988, which left the single
internal PC speaker as the only way early PC software could produce sound and
music.
Uses of a sound card include the audio component's for multimedia applications
such as games, video/audio editing software and music composition. Most
computers today have sound capabilities built into the motherboard, while others
require additional expansion cards
Network Interfrace Card
A Network Interface Card (NIC), also called a network card, network adapter, orLAN Adapter is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. Used for remote communication via cable. Data is transmitted over a cable network. The NIC connects computers to the
Internet.
Express card
The ExpressCard and slot is used primarily on laptop computers.
It replaces the older PC Card (also called PCMCIA). The ExpressCard comes in two sizes, although the ExpressCard/34 may be used in an ExpressCard/54 slot.