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The Motherboard

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As can be seen from the plan of the computer system, the mother, or main board is at the centre of the PC computer system. Effectively it is a printed circuit board containing the central processing unit(CPU)and the memory modules(Simm's). It allows the CPU to interfaces with other parts of the computer via a 'BUS' system, into which sockets are fitted for connection of various 'expansion' boards. Also on the mother board is the RAM memory, normally in the form of SIMM, or DIMM modules in the modern PC computer, and cache memory in the form of intergrated circuits(chips). All these various components will be examined in more detail in their appropriate sections.

Modern boards utilize a Pentium CPU with four PCI and three, or four, ISA expansion slots. Most video boards now use the PCI connection. So,if you are upgrading from a 386, or 486, mother board that have a video board with VESA connectors, you may well have to purchase a new video panel.
Most Pentium boards are also fitted with controllers for Floppy Drives, 4 EIDE devices and Enhanced Parallel and Fast Serial Ports. This 'free's up' a couple of expansion slots for other devices