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COMP 1321 Digital Infrastructure

This article explains the purpose of a motherboard and how it handles input and output from slow and fast devices. It also discusses how motherboard architecture has changed to meet demands for miniaturization, energy-saving, and consumerization.

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COMP 1321 Digital Infrastructure

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  1. COMP 1321 Digital Infrastructure Richard Henson University of Worcester October2012

  2. Week 4: Motherboards • Learning Objectives: • Explain main purpose of the motherboard • Explain how a CPU can handle input & output from slow & fast devices • Explain how motherboard architecture has changed in response to miniaturisation, energy-saving, and consumerisation demands

  3. Why a Motherboard? • CPU far too fragile to exist independently • i.e. needs a “mother” • motherboard delivers power and control to CPU via • control bus • timing chips • ROM and RAM • harnesses power of CPU effectively so it can interact effectively with i/o devices

  4. Typical PC Motherboard http://my.englishclub.com/profiles/blogs/computer-motherboard-parts

  5. CD Rom TV Camera Joystick IDE HDD Keyboard Scanner VDU Mouse Audio 10 B/s 100 B/s 1kB/s 10 kB/s 100 kB/s 1 MB/s 10 MB/s 100 MB/s I/O devices sorted by data transfer times

  6. Typical Slow devices • Keyboard • Mouse • Joystick • Audio

  7. Fast devices (connectstraight into motherboard) • VDU • Hard drive • CD-ROM • Scanner

  8. Even faster devices.. • CPU • Memory (static/dynamic RAM & ROM) • Graphics processors (GPU)

  9. Slow (off motherboard via ports) Serial Parallel Firewire PS/2 mouse & keyboard (legacy) VGA RJ-45: Network connection USB: getting faster & becoming the standard i/o Connectors

  10. Motherboard connectorsfrom http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/articles.php?cat=13

  11. North Bridge & South Bridge • North: control chipset for fastest onboard devices • ROM & static RAM • South: control chipset for slower onboard devices • SATA & IDE connectors • hard disk & CD-ROM/DVD • RAM connectors • many types, differing no. of pins

  12. Connection Connection Layout of component connections Extremely fast components talking directly to each other “North Bridge” chipset Fast components talking directly to each other “South Bridge” chipset Slow components talking directly to each other

  13. Buffers • Areas of memory/storage where data is stored before forwarding • Message from slow device received and stored in buffer • then sent quickly to fast device • Message from fast devices stored • then sent slowly to slow device

  14. Pentium III Incredibly Fast Cache Organizing components by their speeds Main Memory 440North Bridge Very Fast Graphics PCI Bus Fast SCSI IDE DIsk South Bridge USB Graphics KBd Mouse ISA Bus Slow Modem Sound Printer Resulting arrangement

  15. Buses and on-board communications • Bus - physical link between computer components that electrical impulses (ie data as 0s and 1s) can travel through • Only one device can send a message at any one time • other devices have to wait until the line is clear before sending

  16. Basic Principles of Digital Communications between devices • Data usually needs to go in both directions… DEVICE A DEVICE B

  17. The Three Data Communication Alternatives • Simplex • or one direction only • Example: • Broadcast data from a radio or TV mast

  18. Data Transfer • Half Duplex • or one direction only at a time • Example: • Data sent along a single copper wire first then

  19. Data Transfer • Full Duplex • or both directions simultaneously • Example: • Broadband telephone communications

  20. i/o connections with the motherboard • Normally connect digital i/o devices to the motherboard via: • Direct connections through “ports” • Click in expansion or “daughter” cards with their own ports

  21. i/o Buses used with older expansion Cards • ISA = Industry Standard Association • early (1981-1984) communications standard between PC components • speed: up to 16 MB s-1 • 8 or 16-bit parallel connections • PCI = Peripheral Component Interconnect • later (1990-1993) communications standard between computer components • speed: up to 133 MB s-1 • 32-bit parallel connection • ‘Plug and play’ – no set-up software needed, (depending on the operating system used…)

  22. PCI slot ISA slot Older Motherboard: PCI & ISA slotsfrom http://www.ibase-i.com.tw/mb700pixel600.jpg

  23. Peripheral Connectors on the Motherboard • On-board IDE slot • connects up to TWO hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, CD-ROM drives, DVD-ROM drives directly to the motherboard • On-board SCSI slot • connects a much larger number of devices as above to the motherboard

  24. More modern arrangement • Idea copied from “star” arrangement for networking computers together: (see later) • a “hub” connects components of similar speed • hub at centre; components at ends of ‘spokes’ • the several hubs communicate directly with each other

  25. Motherboard Hubs • MCH = Memory Control Hub • connects very fast devices together in a ‘star’ configuration • I(O)CH = Input-output Control Hub • connects together slower devices, also in a star configuration • MCH communicates directly with I(O)CH

  26. MCH and I(O)CHfrom http://www.3dnews.ru/motherboard/intel-ht-chipset/

  27. MCH ICH Motherboard with MCH and ICHfrom http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040712/i865-i875-mobos-21.html

  28. Why are motherboard components arranged this way? • Longer wires… • more time to send messages (good) • degradation of message at high speed (bad) • Therefore… • important for fast components to be close together • slower components can be further apart

  29. AGP slot Socket for processor MCH ICH Slots for RAM cards Motherboard with MCH and ICHfrom http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040712/i865-i875-mobos-21.html

  30. Another PC Motherboard…from http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/articles.php?cat=13

  31. Motherboard & expansion boardfrom http://www.answers.com/topic/motherboard

  32. Smaller Motherboards • So far… • considered Intel 8086 series CPU • large instruction set & power requirements • Other CPUs use much less power, smaller instruction set • therefore motherboard requirements miniaturised • e.g. Intel Atom: Netbook & Tablet PCs • ARM: Smartphones & Tablets

  33. Motherboard-on-a-chip • Started with Smartphones • Spread to Tablet PCs…

  34. Architecture of Motherboard chip • With further miniaturisation… • “motherboard” self-contained • mounted on a board to provide i/o connectors

  35. Arduino Board (i/o) • Microcontroller… not “motherboard on a chip” • therefore not expensive.. • Based on i/o control, not apps • used for “physical” computing (real devices) • http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc8161.pdf • EPROM for embedded programming (“C”) • USB-computer for power (a few mA) • USB provides scope to use i/o for many purposes http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson3.html

  36. Raspberry Pi (computer) • Similar size (and price) to Arduino BUT • needs specific power supply (micro USB, 700 mA) • i/o based on wider range of ports • Microprocessor… • uses ARM • with GPU • read to run an operating system (Linux) Can run apps…

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