A L k Into Motherboards By Amy Madden

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Components  There are many components on a motherboard  Each component has its own function

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

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.

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

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

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)

Basic Input/Output System Referred to as BIOS Referred to as BIOS Built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk 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 Contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, mouse, and other functions

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

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

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

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