A L k Into Motherboards

1. A L k Into Motherboards By Amy Madden

2. How It Is Made The progression that a motherboard goes through is composed of three main different processes • Design Process • Fabrication Process • Assembly Process

3. Design Process • Schematic drawn by design engineers • Schematic contains logic symbols representing components and their connections • Schematic goes to net list

4. Net List • Net list contains all parts’ and symbols’ electrical info • Net list ran into Computer Aided Design (CAD)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. The Fab House • Resin woven cloth are put between layers • Pressure and heat fuse layers together • Drill stage establishes all holes and vias

9. 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

10. 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 

11. 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

12. Components • There are many components on a motherboard • Each component has its own function

13. Transistors • An electronic switch made of semiconductors turning currents on and off • N-type Semiconductors: produces electrons • P-type Semiconductors: produces spaces for electrons

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Voltage Regulators • Automatically maintains a specific voltage traveling in an explicit region • Can raise voltage or lower voltage depending on circumstance

17. 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)

18. 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

19. How it works • The motherboard contains data lines called buses • These buses transmit data between the processor and the components

20. How it works • The front side bus between your processor and chipset determines the speed of the processor • Processor interprets binary code

21. How it works • Use of binary system • A bit is a b inary digit • 8 bits = 1 byte

22. 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