1.12 Hardware specifications

✅ A. Motherboard, Printed Circuit Board

main board of the computer
also called Printed Circuit Board PCB

• normally mother boards contain
  • microprocessor: north
  • RAM: at the east
  • Expansion slots: some slots for extending the capabilities according to your needs(TV card, ecography card for hospitals, vibration measurement card for measuring earthquakes…)

✔️ Two different form factors(structures) of motherboard

Which PCB form factor do you want to buy to make a computer?

1️⃣ ATX

• Advanced Technology Extended
• the Extention slots are perpendicular to the RAM
• 🛠️ Used more these days

2️⃣ BTX

• microprocessor: the micro chip is shown as a diamond
• the Extention slots are parallel to the RAM
• not many computers select BTX these days
• 👎🏻 BTX has a worse air flow than ATX
• 👎🏻 more heat, has worse ventilation
• 🛠️ BTX is still used in servers
• so server rooms are very cold
• but ATX is more preferred for personal computer

✔️ There were more form factors, like DTX, but failed to become commercial

3️⃣ IXT

• Model based on ATX, without so many extension slots
• No extension slot
• example: we cannot add ecography card to the phone

❓ What is a form factor that the RAM and the exention slot are perpendicular?
- ATX

❓ What is a form factor that the RAM and the exention slot are parallel?
- BTX

✔️ Size of motherboard

• put a size of motherboard before ATX/BTX

• example: Standard ATX

• Standard ATX: normal size computer
• Micro ATX: tablet
• Mini ATX: smaller tablet
• Nano ATX: phone
• Pico ATX: smart watch
• There were more sizes, but they did not become commercial

❓ What is the smallest motherboard?
- Pico ITX
- ⭐️ The sizes orders will be in the exam

☑️ Two different connectors to supply

• All mother boards need both ATX-P1 and ATX-P2, mandatory
• ATX-P3 is optional, is an extra distributor to energy
• 🗺️ connectors are always close to the component they feed

1️⃣ ATX-P1

• If you are using ATX motherboard
• has 24 pins
• 🛠️ to supply electricity to the mother board
• there is a place to connect normally on the East
• 🗺️ close to the motherboard

2️⃣ ATX-P2

• has 4 pins, but sometimes has 6 pins
• 🛠️ to give extra electricity to the motherboard
• give extra electricity for the micro processor
• 🗺️ close to CPU(micro processors)

3️⃣ ATX-P3

• optional
• an extra distributor to energy
• extra wire distribute extra energy to extra components
• example: to extra HDDs, extra DVDs

☑️ Sockets

• structure to insert the micro-processor

✔️ Two different types of sockets

1️⃣ PGA

Pin Grid Array

• If the socket is PGA
• the micro-processor has the pins(male)
• and the socket has the holes(female)

2️⃣ LGA

Land Grid Array

• micro-processor is female
• socket is male(pins on the land)

3️⃣ ZIF

Zero Insertion Force

• most of the sockets these days have a levering structure

• and the levering structure helps the insertion of the micro-processor to the motherboard

• So we have ZIF PGA and ZIF LGA

❓ How do we position the micro processor on the motherboard?

• The micro processor has a small golden triangle
• There is a triangle in the micro processor
• that has to match/fit the triangle on the socket

✅ B. RAM Memory(Main Memory)

• RAM comes in cards
• 🛍️ When we buy a RAM, we have to look at the slots of the mother board
  • if same two sets ➡️ SIMM
  • different size of sets, more than two sets ➡️ DIMM
  • need to be encapsulated ➡️ RIMM

✔️ Three types of RAM depending on the physical structure

1️⃣ SIMM

Single Inlay Memory Module

• always 2 sets of pins
• two sets of pins of the same size
• very old version of SIMM can have only one set of pins

2️⃣ DIMM

Double Inlay Memory Module

• the size of the pins are different
• and there can be more than two sets/portions

3️⃣ RIMM

Rambus Inlay Memory Module

• everything is hidden
• encapsulated
• 👍🏻 RIMM’s capsule helps with the airflow
• 🛠️ RIMMs are used for RAMs that need better ventilation
• 🛠️ Computers dedicated to graphic design, architecture(more heat) use RIMM for better ventilation

✔️ Three types of RAM depending internal technology

Depending on HOW a RAM works(internal technology)

✔️ Frequency: The final speed of the RAM

1️⃣ SDRAM

Synchronized Dynamic Random Access Memory

• Random: address is not decided in order, can access address/directions randomly, not in order
• Synchronized: the RAM is synchronized with the clock
• Synchronized does not mean it has 2GHz like the clock ❌
• Synchronized means that RAM only works when the clock changes from 0 to 1 ⭕️
• Thus, the speed of this SDRAM is slow 🐢
• only 133MHz

• I can only access 133Mega times per second to the RAM

• 👎🏻 Nowadays, SDRAM exists, but considered very slow

2️⃣ DDR

Double Data Rate

• Double: you can have two reads or writes at the same time
• the speed would be same 133MHz, but you can read/write 2 times

• 🐇 more faster than SDRAM

• these days we have DDR-2, DDR-3, DDR-4, DDR-5…
• DDR-n means n to the power of 2
• DDR-2: you can read/write 2^2 times at the same time
• DDR-3: you can read/write 2^3 times at the same time
• DDR-4: you can read/write 2^4 times at the same time
• DDR-5: you can do 2^5 read/writes at the same time

• the frequency would be highest in DDR-5

• Nowaways, faster RAMs would come in modern format, which is DIMM

❓ Which is the fastest speed we can get in a RAM?
A: RAM would be DDR-5
A: speed would be 133MHz * 32

❓ What do you say when you go to buy a RAM?
- I want a DIMM, DDR-5

3️⃣ RDRAM

Rambus Dynamic RAM

• RAM that is encapsulated
• interal technology of the RIMM
• speed: around 1GHz
• 🛠️ Design, Architecture
• 👍🏻 Encapsulated, fast, good ventilation

✅ C. Chipset

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