A Small History Of Motherboards

In this day and age our world is mainly run by one thing: computers. Everyone
wants a better performing computer, laptop or pocket PC,
because of the wide range of applications available for them. But how did it all
start? Who were the pioneers of it all?

Before we discuss this aspect, you need to know what a computer consists of. The
most common type of a computer is called IBM-compatible. There are
several components that make such a machine work and these are: the
motherboard, microprocessor, RAM and other devices usually linked to the
motherboard through cables or various other connectors.

The main topic of this article is motherboards. They represent the
central piece of any desktop computer, because through them all the other
devices communicate, synchronize and perform various functions for which they
are designed.

Let’s talk about computers in their beginning. The first computer that used a
motherboard as the central piece was presented on the market in 1981 by IBM –
the IBM PC. You may have guessed this, since today’s computers are called
IBM-compatible.

The features of this computer consisted of: 4.77MHz Intel microprocessor,
16K bytes of memory, 8-bit ISA connectors and ports for keyboard and tape. Other
ports like serial, parallel and floppy drive connectors could be provided
through plug-in boards. All of these features may seam ancient to us now, but at
that time they were top of the line.

Before the presentation of the IBM PC, all the computers were built using a case
and the components were linked using a backplane. This consisted of a set of
slots linked together with wires. The difference between a backplanes and
motherboards is the lack of on-board power of processing and the CPU is on a
separate plug-in card.

The cost effectiveness of placing more components onto a single hardware piece
became a well-known fact. Therefore, in the late 1980s, motherboards were
improved with a set of chips that were capable to support some low-level
peripherals like mouse and keyboard, serial and parallel ports, floppy disk
drives and more.

Today’s motherboards are far more advanced. Since the beginning of the 21st
century, it became common for a motherboard to support video, audio, networking
and storage functions without needing other expansion cards. For people who
wanted higher performances, for example, 3D gaming, a separate graphics card was
the only thing they needed.

If you want to purchase a new computer, you should purchase it according to your
needs. If you want to play advanced video games, than a high performance PC is
required. On the other hand, for simple tasks like editing documents and reading
email, you do not need to spend a fortune.

A little information never hurt anybody. Do your homework before you make any
purchase and compare the performances of one system with the ones of another!
You should also be careful regarding the compatibility of you motherboard with
the other components.

By: Ron Mark
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Now you know how motherboards came into play and the importance of them for all
the people around the world. Always be sure that a motherboard has all the
features you need before you buy it so you won’t be sorry afterwards.