Definition of system board

System board is complex printed circuit board (PCB), which is the central part of many electronic systems, particularly the computer. The basic purpose of the system board like a backplane which is to provide the electrical and logical connections by which the other components of the system communicate.

Types of System Boards

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Primary purpose of system board

To house the CPU and allow all devices to communicate with it

Two popular types

AT (older) ATX (newer)

AT and ATX differ not in overall performance, but in size, convenience features, type of case into which they fit, and type of power connection they have

Summary of AT and ATX Boards

AT and ATX Boards

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System Board Components

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A CPU and its accompanying chip set A system clock ROM BIOS A CMOS configuration chip and its battery RAM

RAM cache A system bus with expansion slots Jumpers Ports that come directly off the board Power supply connections

System Board
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System Board
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Selecting a System Board(cont)

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CPU types and speeds Chip set on the board Memory cache type and size Types and number of expansion slots Type of memory Maximum amount of memory you can put on the board; incremental amounts by which memory can be upgraded
continued

Selecting a System Board

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Type of case ROM BIOS Type of keyboard connector Presence/absence of proprietary video &/or proprietary local bus slots Presence/absence of IDE adapters and SCSI controller Presence/absence of COM ports, LPT ports, and mouse port

Major Manufacturers of System Boards

The CPU and the Chip Set

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Microprocessor chips are made by Intel or one of its competitors Common model numbers
8088, 8086, 80286 (historical interest) 386 (occasional) 486 and Pentium (most familiar)

Attributes for Rating CPUs

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CPU speed measured in megahertz Efficiency of programming code Word size (internal data path size) Data path Maximum number of memory addresses Amount of memory included with the CPU Multiprocessing ability Special functionality

Relating CPU Attributes to Bus Architecture

Number of memory addresses
Determined by the number of traces, or wires, on the bus that are used for memory addresses

Data path size

Determined by the width of the bus data path, or the number of parallel wires in the bus data path

The Earlier Intel CPUs

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The Earlier Intel CPUs

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Voltages used by CPUs

Early CPUs: 5 volts Later versions of 80486Sx and 80486DX4: 3.3 volts First Pentium: 5 volts All other Pentiums: 3.3 and 2.8 volts

Coprocessor used with older CPUs

Performs calculations for the CPU at a faster speed that the CPU

The Pentium and Its Competitors

True 64-bit chip
Both the data path and word size are 64 bits

Two arithmetic logic units

Can perform two calculations at the same time

Comparing Chips
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Bus speed
Speed or frequency at which the data on the system board is moving

Processor speed
Speed or frequency at which the CPU operates Usually expressed in megahertz

continued

Comparing Chips
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Multiplier
Factor by which the bus speed or frequency is multiplied to get the CPU clock speed

Memory cache
A small amount of faster RAM that stores recently retrieved data, in anticipation of what the CPU will request next, thus speeding up access

Location of L1 and L2 Caches

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Types of Pentium CPUs

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Classic Pentium
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The first Pentium (introduced in 1993) No longer manufactured

Pentium MMX (Multimedia Extension)

Targets the home market Speeds up graphical applications Performs well with games and multimedia software

Pentium Pro
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Recommended for 32-bit applications that rely heavily on fast access to large amounts of cache memory First Pentium to offer Level 2 cache inside CPU housing Popular for computing-intensive workstations and servers Does not perform well with older 16-bit applications software written for DOS or Windows 3.x

Pentium II
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Popular choice for a powerful business computer using graphics applications, such as 3-D graphic manipulation, CAD, and multimedia presentations with graphics, motion video, and sound Designed for graphics-intensive workstations and servers First Pentium to use a slot instead of a socket to connect to the system board
continued

Pentium II
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Celeron processor
Low-end Pentium II processor that targets the lowend multimedia PC market segment Uses Level 2 cache within processor housing Works well with Windows 9x

Xeon processor
Fast, high-end Pentium II processor designed exclusively for powerful servers and workstations Supports up to eight processors in one computer Recommended for use with Windows NT and UNIX operating systems

Pentium III
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Uses Slot 1 and runs with the 100-MHz memory bus with a processor speed of 500 MHz Introduced Intels new performance enhancement called SSE, a new instruction set designed to improve multimedia processing even further

The Pentium Competitors

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Competitors of the Advanced Pentiums

Competitors of the Advanced Pentiums

Competitors of the Advanced Pentiums

CPUs That Use RISC Technology

CPU is limited to a very few instructions that can execute in a single clock cycle Can process much faster when few complex calculations are required Ideal for video or telecommunications applications Easier and cheaper to manufacture

CPU Cooling Fans

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Maintain temperature at 90 to 110 degrees F Used to prevent system errors and to prolong the life of the CPU

CPU Slots and Sockets

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The physical connection used to connect the CPU to the system board Four most common types
Socket 7
Used on 66MHz boards

Super Socket 7
Used on 100MHz boards

Socket 8 Slot 1

Types of Sockets Used by CPUs

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Socket Comparisons
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The ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) Socket

Uses a small lever to apply even force when installing the microchip into socket

Pentium II and Pentium III Chips

CPU is completely enclosed within a black housing

CPU Voltage Regulator

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Controls the amount of voltage on the system board Dual voltage CPU
Requires two different voltages, one for internal processing and the other for I/O processing

Single voltage CPUs

Requires one voltage for both internal and I/O operations

CPU Voltage Regulator

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The Chip Set

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Set of chips on the system board that collectively controls the memory cache, external buses, and some peripherals

Chip Set Manufacturers

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Intel Corporation AMD, Inc. Cyrix Corporation Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (known as SiS)

Standard Microsystems Corp. United Microelectronics Corp. VIA Technology, Inc. VLSI Technology

The Intel Chip Set Family

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Chip Sets that Compete with Intel

VIA and AMD
VIA Apollo VP2/97 AMD-640 ()

ALi
Aladdin Pro II Aladdin V

SiS
Genesis Trinity 5591/92 AGP

VIA
Apollo MVP3

Intel Dominates the Chip Set Market

Chip sets are more compatible with Pentium family of CPUs Huge investment in research and development
PCI bus Universal serial bus Advanced graphics port (AGP)

ROM BIOS
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There is one ROM chip on the system board that contains BIOS, which manages the startup process (startup BIOS) and many basic functions of the system (system BIOS) Identifying name of BIOS manufacturer
Appears at beginning of boot process On top of the chip (larger than most chips)

ROM BIOS
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Does the BIOS support Plug and Play? Does the BIOS support large hard drives? Is the BIOS chip a Flash ROM chip?

The Total BIOS in your System

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Plug and Play BIOS

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Plug and Play

A technology in which the operating system and BIOS are designed to automatically configure new hardware devices to eliminate system resource conflicts (such as IRQ and port conflicts) Common in ROM BIOS made after 1994

ESCD (extended system configuration data)

When BIOS Is Incompatible with Hardware or Software

When BIOS Is Incompatible with Hardware or Software

Most new devices are supported by device drivers Upgrade BIOS with Flash ROM

When BIOS Is Incompatible with Hardware or Software

Flash ROM
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EEPROM (electronically erasable programmable read-only memory) Allows you to upgrade system BIOS without having to replace the ROM chip

Sample Web Site for Flash ROM BIOS Upgrades

continued

Sample Web Site for Flash ROM BIOS Upgrades

RAM (Random Access Memory)

In older machines
Existed as individual chips socketed to the system board in banks of nine chips each Each blank held one byte by storing one bit in each chip; ninth chip held a parity bit

Current Types of RAM

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Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

Most commonly used type of system memory Access speeds range from 70 to 50 nanoseconds Hold data for a very short time Requires refreshing every few milliseconds

Static RAM (SRAM)

Contains information without the need for refreshing, as long as the computers power is on Hold data until power is turned off More expensive than traditional DRAM

Dynamic Memory
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Types
Parity
Error-checking scheme in which a ninth, or parity, bit is added Value of parity bit is et to either 0 or 1

Non parity ECC (error checking and correction)

Detects and corrects errors

Most Popular Types of RAM Modules

Prevailing Memory Technologies

Static Cache Memory

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Two kinds
L1
Contained on the CPU microchip

L2
External to the chip Housed either on the system board or inside the CPU case

Wait States
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A clock tick in which nothing happens, used to slow down the CPU so the rest of system-board activity can keep up

Buses and Expansion Slots

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Earliest PC
Had only a single and simple bus (8-bit ISA bus)

Todays PCs
Have four or five buses, each with different speeds, access methods, and protocols

Bus Evolution
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Data path and speed Local buses (system buses)

Work in sync with the CPU and the system clock Example: memory bus

Expansion buses
Work asynchronously with the CPU at a much slower rate Example: ISA bus

Why So Many Buses?

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Speeds of different hardware components evolve at different rates Single speed for all components is no longer practical

System-board Buses in Common Use

What a Bus Does

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Draws electrical power Carries control signals that coordinate all activity Passes memory addresses from one component to another Passes data

Seven Bus Connections on Expansion Cards

Buses
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ISA bus
8-bit industry standard architecture bus used on the original 8088 PC

Micro channel architecture (MCA) bus

A proprietary IBM PS/2 bus, seldom seen today, with a width of 13 or 32 bits and multiple master control, which allowed for multitaskiing

EISA (extended ISA) bus

32-bit bus that can transfer 4 bytes a a time at a speed of about 20 MHz
continued

Buses
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Universal serial bus (USB)

Designed to make installation and configuration of I/O devices easy, providing room for as many as 127 devices daisychained together Uses only a single set of resources for all devices on the bus Expected to eventually replace serial and parallel ports

USB Ports
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FireWire
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An expansion bus that can also be configured to work as a local bus Expected to replace the SCSI bus, providing an easy method to install and configure fast I/O devices Also called IEEE 1394

Local I/O Buses

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A local bus that provides I/O devices with fast access to the CPU Must connect to the CPU by way of the memory bus

Example of a Proprietary Local Bus

Local I/O Buses

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VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) VL bus

Used on 80486 computers for connecting 32-bit adapters directly the the local processor bus Has been replaced with the PCI bus

PCI (peripheral component interconnect) bus

Common on Pentium computers Runs at speeds of up to 33 MHz, with a 32-bitwide data path Serves as the middle layer between the memory bus and expansion buses

VESA Local Bus

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PCI Bus
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PCI Bus
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Accelerated Graphics Port

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A slot on a system board for a video card that provides transfer of video data from the CPU that is synchronized with the memory bus

Accelerated Graphics Port

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Bus Comparisons and Bus Speeds

On-Board Ports
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Ports that are directly on the system board, such as a built-in keyboard port or on-board serial port

Hardware Configuration
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Communicates to the CPU what hardware components are present in the system and how they are set up to interface with the CPU Provided on system board in three ways
DIP switches Jumpers CMOS (retains data even when computer is turned off)

continued

Chapter Summary
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System board
Central site of computer logic circuitry Location of the most important microchip in the computer, the CPU