A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in a computer that holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory. It is also referred to as the "mother" of all components attached to it, which often include peripherals, interface cards, and daughterboards. The motherboard provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate.
The PCB of a motherboard may include six to 14 layers of fiberglass, copper connecting traces, and copper planes for power and signal isolation. Other components get added to a motherboard through expansion slots, such as processor sockets, dual in-line memory modules, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI Express (PCIe), and solid-state drive M.2 slots, as well as power supply connections.
Each motherboard is designed to support specific components, such as CPUs and memory, and can accommodate most types of hard drives and peripherals. The primary components of a motherboard include the CPU with its logic circuitry that processes the instructions from programs, the operating system, and other computer components, and memory where instructions are stored temporarily.
In summary, a motherboard is a crucial component of a computer system that provides connectivity between the hardware components of a computer, such as the CPU, memory, hard drive, and video card, and allows communication between them.
