PcInside

The motherboard is the central component of the pc. All components that a pc requires to fucntion are connected to each other through this so called motherboard. The Motherboard itself is a large cirquit board, with several slides that fit different components. In addition it houses the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). The bios contains data about the different parts connected and "logged on" to the motherboard and the different settings (voltages etc) for these components. Whent he computer is powered on the first step will be the initalization of this BIOS and a check for conflicts.

Nowadays the motherboard is more then just a device to connect the different parts. For example the motherboard also houses sounchips (replacing dedicated sound cards), controllers (USB, memory, harddisk) and other chips that allow high speed communication between different parts. The increase in requirements has resulted in special cooling solutions aimed at the motherboard such as heatpipes or fans in addition to the regular processor cooling fan.