I Can’t Sleep - Motherboards | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

Unwind with calm bedtime reading about motherboards to help with insomnia and sleepless nights. This soothing episode explores the central circuit board that connects all parts of a computer, from the CPU and memory to expansion cards and storage. Benjamin’s gentle cadence transforms the technical world of computing into a peaceful journey of learning. With no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling—you’ll find stress easing, your mind settling, and rest arriving naturally. Press play, relax, and drift off while discovering how motherboards make computers work. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Motherboard, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Motherboard. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Motherboard. A motherboard, sometimes alternatively known as the main board, main circuit board, system board, base board, planner board, or logic board, or colloquially a mobo,

is the main printed circuit board, PCB, found in general purpose computers, and other expandable systems. It holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit, CPU, and memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals. Unlike a backplane, a motherboard usually contains significant subsystems, such as the central processor, the chipsets input, output, and memory controllers, interface connectors, and other components integrated for general purpose use and applications. motherboard specifically refers to a PCB with expansion capability, and as the name suggests, this board is often referred to as the mother of all components attached to it, which often include peripherals, interface cards and daughter cards, sound cards, video cards, network cards, hard drives, or other forms of persistent storage, TV tuner cards, cards, cards providing extra USB or fire,

wire slots and a variety of other custom components. Similarly, the term main board is applied to devices with a single board and no additional expansions or capability, such as controlling boards in laser printers, televisions, washing machines, mobile phones, and other embedded systems with little expansion abilities. Prior to the invention of the microprocessor, the digital computer consisted of multiple printed circuit boards in a card cage case with components connected by a back plane, a set of interconnected sockets. In very old designs, copper wires were the discrete connections

between card connector pins, but printed circuit boards soon became the standard practice. The central processing unit, CPU, memory, and peripherals were housed on individual printed circuit boards, which were plugged into the back plane. The ubiquitous S-100 bus of the 1970s is an example of this type of backplane system. The most popular computers of the 1980s, such as the Apple 2 and IBM PC, had published schematic diagrams and other documentation which permitted rapid reverse engineering

and third-party replacement motherboards. Usually intended for building new computers compatible with the exemplars, Many motherboards offered additional performance or other features and were used to upgrade the manufacturer's original equipment. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of peripheral functions onto the motherboard. In the late 1980s, personal computer motherboards began to include single ICs, also called superio chips, capable of supporting a set of low-speed peripherals, keyboard, mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. By the late 1990s, many personal computer motherboards included consumer-grade embedded audio, video,

storage, and networking functions without the need for any expansion cards at all. higher-end systems for 3D gaming and computer graphics typically retained only the graphics card as a separate component. Business PCs, workstations, and servers were more likely to need expansion cards, either for more robust functions or for higher speeds. Those systems often had fewer embedded components. Laptop and notebook computers that were developed in the 1990s integrated the most common peripherals.

This even included motherboards with no upgradable components, a trend that would continue as smaller systems were introduced after the turn of the century, like the tablet computer in the netbook. Memory, processors, network controllers, power source, and storage would be integrated into some systems. A motherboard provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate. Unlike a backplane, it also contains a central processing unit and hosts other subsystems and devices. A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory, and other essential components connected to the motherboard. Other components such as external storage, controllers for video display and sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-in cards or via cables.

In modern microcomputers, it is increasingly common to integrate some of these peripherals into the motherboard itself. An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's supporting chipset, which provides the supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various buses and external components. This chipset determines to an extent the features and capabilities of the motherboard. Modern motherboards include sockets or slot, in which one or more microprocessors may be installed, in the case of CPUs in ball grid array packages, such as the VIA C3,

the CPU is directly soldered to the motherboard. Memory slots into which the system's main memory is to be installed, typically in the form of dim modules containing DRAM chips, a chip set which forms an interface between the CPU's front side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses. Non-volatile chips, usually flash ROM and modern motherboards, containing the system's firmware or BIOS. A clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various components. Slots for expansion cards, the interface to the system via the buses supported by the chipset.

Power connectors, which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and distributed to the CPU chip set. main memory and expansion cards. As of 2007, some graphic cards, e.g. G. Force 8 and radion R-600, require more power than the motherboard can provide, and thus dedicated connectors have been introduced to attach them directly to the power supply. Connectors for hard drives, typically SATA only. Disc drives also connect to the power supply. Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly used input devices, such as USB for mouse devices and keyboards.

Early personal computers such as the Apple 2 or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Occasionally, video interface hardware was also integrated into the motherboard. For example, on the Apple 2 and rarely on the IBM, compatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards. Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat. Motherboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shape called computer form factor,

some of which are specific to individual computer manufacturers. However, the motherboards used in IBM compatible systems are designed to fit various case sizes. As of 2007, most desktop computer motherboards use the ATX standard form factor. Even those found in Macatosh and Sun computers, which have not been built from commodity components. A cases motherboard and power supply unit, PSU, form factor, must all match, though some smaller form factor motherboards of the same family will fit larger cases. For example, an ATX case will usually accommodate a micro-ATX motherboard. Computers generally use highly integrated miniaturized and customized motherboards.

This is one of the reasons that laptop computers are difficult to up. and expensive to repair. Often the failure of one laptop component requires the replacement of the entire motherboard, which is usually more expensive than a desktop motherboard. A CPU socket, central processing unit, or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board, PCB, and is designed to house a CPU, also called a microprocessor. It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions,

including a physical structure to support the CPU, support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement as well as a reducing cost, and most importantly, forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the integrated peripherals. With the steadily declining costs of size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard.

By combining many functions on one PCB, the physical size and total cost of the system may be reduced. Highly integrated motherboards are thus especially popular and small form factor and budget computers. Disc controllers for a floppy disk drive, up to two Peta drives, and up to six SATa drives, including Raid Zero One support. Integrated Graphs,

Integrated graphics controller supporting 2D and 3D graphics with VGA and TV output. Integrated sound cards supporting 8-channel 7.1 audio and S-P-D-I-F output. Ethernet network controller for connection to a LAN and to receive Internet. USB controller supporting up to 12 USB ports. IRDA controller for infrared data communication, e.g. with an IRDA-enabled cellular phone or printer. temperature, voltage, and fan speed sensors that allow software to monitor the health of computer components. A typical motherboard will have a different number of connections depending on its standard and form factor. A standard modern ATX motherboard will typically have two or three PCI Express 16X connection for a graphics card,

one or two legacy PCI slots for various expansion cards, and one or two PCIE 1X, which has superseded PCI. A standard EATX motherboard will have 2 to 4 PCIE 16X connection for graphics cards, and a varying number of PCI and PCIE 1X slots. It can sometimes also have a PCIE 4X slot. It will vary between brands and models. Some motherboards have two or more PCIE 163. X slots to allow more than two monitors without special hardware, or use a special graphics

technology called SLI for Nvidia and Crossfire for AMD. These allow two to four graphics cards to be linked together to allow better performance in intensive graphical computing tasks, such as gaming, video editing, etc. Motherboards are generally air-cooled with heat sinks, soften mounted on larger chips, such as the North Bridge in modern motherboards. Insufficient or improper cooling can cause damage to the internal components of the computer or cause it to crash. Passive cooling or a single fan mounted on the power supply

was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s. Since then, most have required CPU fans mounted on their heat sinks due to rising clock speeds and power consumption. Most motherboards have connectors for additional computer fans and integrated temperature sensors to detect motherboard and CPU temperatures and controllable fan connectors, which the BIOS or operating system can use to regulate fan speed. Alternatively, computers can use a water cooling system instead of many fans. Some small form factor computers and home theater PCs designed for quiet and energy-efficient operation boast fanless designs. This typically requires the use of a low-power CPU, as well as a careful layout of the motherboard and other components to allow for heat-sync placement.

In 2003, study found that some spurious computer crashes and general reliability issues, ranging from screen image distortions to I.O. read-write errors, can be attributed not to software or peripheral hardware, but to aging capacitors on PC motherboards. Ultimately, this was shown to be the result of a faulty electrolyte formulation, an issue-termed capacitor plague. Standard motherboards use electrolyte capacitors to filter the DC power distributed around the motherboard. These capacitors age at a temperature-dependent rate as their water-based electrolytes slowly evaporate. This can lead to loss of capacitance and subsequent motherboard malfunctions due to voltage instabilities. While most capacitors are rated for 2,000 hours of operation at 105 degrees Celsius,

their expected design life roughly doubles for every 10 degrees Celsius below this. At 65 degrees Celsius, a lifetime of 3 to 4 years can be expected. However, many manufacturers deliver substandard capacitors, which significantly reduced life expectancy, inadequate case cooling, and elevated temperatures around the CPU socket, exacerbate this problem. With top blowers, the motherboard components can be kept under 95 degrees Celsius, effectively doubling the motherboard lifetime. Mid-range and high-end motherboards, on the other hand, use solid capacitors exclusively. For every 10 degrees Celsius less,

their average lifespan is multiplied approximately by three, resulting in a six-time higher lifetime expectancy at 65 degrees Celsius. These capacitors may be rated for 5,000, 10,000 or 12,000 hours of operation at 105 degrees Celsius, extending the projected lifetime in comparison with standard solid capacitors. Motherboards contain some non-volatile memory to initialize the system and load some startup software, usually an operating system, from some external peripheral device. Microcomputers such as the Apple 2 and IBM PC used ROM chips mounted in sockets on the motherboard. At PowerUp, the central processor would load its program counter with the address of the boot ROM and start executing instructions from the ROM.

These instructions initialized and tested the system hardware displayed system information on the screen, performed RAM checks, and then loaded an initial program from a peripheral device. If none was available, then the computer would perform tasks from other memory stores or display an error message, depending on the model and design of the computer and the ROM version. For example, both the Apple II and the original IBM PC had Microsoft cassette Basic and ROM, and would start that if no program could be loaded from disk. Most modern motherboard designs use a BIOS stored in an E-Prom chip, solder to or socketed on the motherboard to boot and operating system.

Non-operating system boot programs are still supported on modern IBM PC-descended machines, but nowadays it is assumed that the boot program will be a complex operating system such as Microsoft Windows or Linux. The BIOS firmware tests and configures memory, circuitry, and peripherals. This power on self-test POST may include testing some of the following things. Video adapter, cards inserted into slots such as conventional PCI, floppy drive, temperatures, voltages, voltages, and fan speeds for hardware monitoring, CMOS memory used to store BIOS setup configuration, keyboard and mouse, network controller, optical drives, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM,

SCSI hard drive, IDE, or serial ATA hard disk drive, Security devices such as fingerprint reader or the state of a latching switch to detect intrusion. USB devices such as a memory storage device. On recent motherboards, the BIOS may also patch the central processor microd if the BIOS detects that the installed CPU is one for which ERADA had been published. Many motherboards now use an updated to BIOS called UEFI.