1.12 Hardware specifications_1

Posted Oct 8, 2025

By So Hee Park 10 min read

⭐️ how do you call the mother board that the RAM is perpendicular…
⭐️ how do you call the name of RAM that is….

📌 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
↔️ the distribution of heat

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

3️⃣ IXT

Model based on ATX, without so many expansion slots
No expansion 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 micro processor
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

where to put the CPU
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)
pins are in the micro processor

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)

✔️ Two ways of distinguishing RAM
- depending on physical structure
- depending on internal technology

☑️ Three types of RAM depending on the physical structure

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

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
can have three 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

☑️ How to measure a RAM

✔️ Frequency: The final speed of the RAM

How many times per second we can access the RAM(Hertz)
example: I can access the RAM 1 time per second
How often I have an appointment with the RAM

✔️ Latency:

How much I have to wait before getting data from the RAM
waiting time, once you are inside the RAM, once you have access to the RAM, before getting the information
measured in nano seconds
nano second: 0.000 000 001 second = 1 * 10^(-9) seconds

✔️ Word width:

number of bits per address/in each address of the RAM
how much data we can save per address in a RAM
length of the data we can save on one address of the RAM

✔️ Bandwidth:

combination of all the frequency, latency, word width
Giga bits/second = Gbps
how much data, real amount of data you can read/write per second

👉🏻 Thus, an ideal RAM is

high frequency ⬆️
low latency ⬇️
word width ⬆️
high bandwidth ⬆️

✔️ Channeling

combination of RAM cards
in order to increase
combine several RAM cards to increase capacity of memory
Multi Channeling
✔️ Dual Channel: two sets of two cards, so we have 4 RAMs
✔️ Triple Channel: three sets of two cards, so we have 6 RAMs
✔️ Quadruple Channel: four sets of two cards, so we have 8 RAMs

All the RAM cards that are combined, so in the same color should be equal
equal means: same frequency, same latency, same wordwidth, same capacity, same age(time used)
Recommended, so if you are going to change one RAM, change the others too!
memory controller, system agent block would help channeling

✔️ Capacity

RAM of 32bits is 4GB
so capacity is measured in GB

☑️ Three types of RAM depending internal technology

Depending on HOW a RAM works(internal technology)

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 🐢
⭐️EXAM⭐️ only 133MHz = 133 million times per second
I can only access 133Mega times per second to the RAM
Frequency: This is called the Frequency of the RAM
👎🏻 Nowadays, SDRAM exists, but considered very slow

2️⃣ DDR

Double Data Rate RAM

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
Frequency: around 1GHz
this RAM would read/write 1000million times per second
🛠️ Design, Architecture
👍🏻 Encapsulated, fast, good ventilation

💡 SO-DIMMS

DIMM for laptops
smaller DIMM for laptops

📌 C. Chipset

Only traditional motherboards have north bridge and south bridge
Set of chips you can find on the motherboard
purpose: helpers of the CPU, help the micro processor, CPU

In the traditional motherboard PCBs,
chipset is a set of two bridges
In chipsets, there are two parts
north bridge and the south bridge
north: in charge of elements that need more efficiency
south: in charge of elements that can be a bit slower

1️⃣ North Bridge

has two jobs, 1️⃣ help fast work for CPU, and 2️⃣ responsible for south bridge

1️⃣ help with high speed elements
help important elements of the motherboard
processor is in the north, so north bridge is also in the north, close to the processor
🥵 gets more warmer
we need to ventilate, refrigirate
so it has a structure of a corridor
need airflow
✔️ Heat sink: to provide airflow, ventilation for the north bridge
purpose of heatsink: create airflow, for refreshing
2️⃣ north bridge is also in charge of controlling the south
north is in charge of supplying the south

❓ What is controlled by the north bridge?

Memory controller: for controlling several RAMs
Graphic cards and expansion cards are normally inserted in the expasion slots
Front side bus: for communication among cores
Peripherals in Transport bus: for peripherals in multicore

❓ If south bridge and north bridge is helping CPU, then what does the CPU do?

CPU: backside bus + ALU + CU
and rest of the work would be helped by south bridge and north bridge

2️⃣ South Bridge

Sometimes South bridge is called Input Output Controller(I/O controller)
relatively not so fast, not so important parts of the processor
situated in the south of the motherboard
does not need as much as ventilation
does not get so hot
does not have heatsink

❓ What is controlled by the south bridge?

Peripherals in mono-core, can be slower, normal keyboard
External connectors in the motherboard
BIOS: booting system of the computer

📌 External connectors

connect to audio, internet, USBs, mouse, keyboard…

at the west side of the motherboard(left)
there are lots of connectors for the peripherals
in the motherboard, there are connectors for the external connectors
green for earphones
all the external connectors connect to the south bridge of the chipset
In a computer all-in-one (computer with no tower, like the one in Clara Del Rey)
the motherboard is placed differently
so for connecting USBs, peripherals, they are behind the screen

📌 Modern PCBs

in modern PCBs, there is no north bridge nor south bridge

✔️ North bridge

inside CPU, control MC only

the north bridge inserted/internal in the CPU/processor
so we do not see
but as it is inside the CPU, north bridge only controls the Memory Controller

✔️ Platform controller HUB(PCH)

South bridge works more, needs ventilation, change name to PCH

and the south bridge gets all the job of the traditional north bridge
and does all the work
it becomes very very powerful
🥵 and now south needs the ventilation
now called Platform controller HUB(PCH)