A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in a computer. It is also known as the mainboard, system board, mobo, or logic board in Apple computers. The motherboard 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. It is designed to support specific components, such as CPUs and memory, and can accommodate most types of hard drives and peripherals.
The base of a motherboard consists of a very firm sheet of non-conductive material, typically some sort of rigid plastic. Thin layers of copper or aluminum foil, referred to as traces, are printed onto this sheet. These traces are very narrow and form the circuits between the various components. In addition to circuits, a motherboard contains a number of sockets and slots to connect the other components.
Some of the key components of a motherboard include:
- CPU with its logic circuitry that processes the instructions from programs, the operating system, and other computer components
- Memory where instructions are stored temporarily for processing
- Expansion slots such as Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI Express (PCIe), and solid-state drive M.2 slots
- Power supply connections
A computer motherboard is located inside the computer case and is where most of the parts and computer peripherals connect. It is considered the backbone of the computer and serves as a single platform to connect all of the parts of a computer together.
