A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) 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 sub-systems, such as the central processor, the chipset's input/output and memory controllers, interface connectors, and other components integrated for general use.
PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common motherboard interface for personal computers' graphics cards, sound cards, hard disk drive host adapters, SSDs, Wi-Fi and Ethernet hardware connections. PCIe has numerous improvements over the older standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism, and native hot-swap functionality. More recent revisions of the PCIe standard provide hardware support for I/O virtualization.
Centrino is a brand name of Intel Corporation which represents its Wi-Fi and WiMAX wireless computer networking adapters. Previously the same brand name was used by the company as a platform-marketing initiative. The change of the meaning of the brand name occurred on January 7, 2010. The Centrino was replaced by the Ultrabook.
Mini-ITX is a 170 mm × 170 mm motherboard form factor developed by VIA Technologies in 2001. Mini-ITX motherboards have been traditionally used in small-configured computer systems. Originally, Mini-ITX was a niche standard designed for fanless cooling with a low power consumption architecture, which made them useful for home theater PC systems, where fan noise can detract from the cinema experience.
On older personal computer motherboards, the southbridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset, handling many of a computer's input/output functions. The other component of the chipset is the northbridge, which generally handles onboard control tasks.
The land grid array (LGA) is a type of surface-mount packaging for integrated circuits (ICs) that is notable for having the pins on the socket — as opposed to pins on the integrated circuit, known as a pin grid array (PGA). An LGA can be electrically connected to a printed circuit board (PCB) either by the use of a socket or by soldering directly to the board.
Dell XPS is a line of consumer-oriented laptop and desktop computer series manufactured by Dell since 1993.
An ultra-mobile PC, or ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in Spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this direction in 2004 with its Vaio U series, which was only sold in Asia. UMPCs are generally smaller than subnotebooks, have a TFT display measuring (diagonally) about 12.7 to 17.8 centimetres, are operated like tablet PCs using a touchscreen or a stylus, and can also have a physical keyboard. There is no clear boundary between subnotebooks and ultra-mobile PCs, but UMPCs commonly have major features not found in the common clamshell laptop design, such as small keys on either side of the screen, or a slide-out keyboard.
Serial Digital Video Out (SDVO) is a proprietary Intel technology introduced with their 9xx-series of motherboard chipsets.
The NanoBook is an ultra-mobile PC reference design by VIA Technologies, Inc. It has a clamshell form factor, a 7-inch 800×480 touchscreen display, and a full-size keyboard. It weighs less than 850g and has a claimed battery life of up to 4.5 hours. It is based on the VIA VX700 chipset, featuring the VIA UniChrome Pro II IGP integrated graphics and powered by the 1.2-GHz VIA C7-M ultra low voltage processor. It includes up to 1 GB DDR2 memory, a minimum 30-GB hard drive, 802.11g WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet support, as well as a 4-in-1 card reader, a DVI port and two USB 2.0 ports.
Dell Vostro is a line of business-oriented laptop and desktop computers manufactured by Dell aimed at small to medium range businesses. From 2013–2015, the line was temporarily discontinued on some Dell websites but continued to be offered in other markets, such as Malaysia and India.
Nvidia Ion was a product line of Nvidia Corporation intended for motherboards of low-cost portable computers. It used graphics processing units and chipsets intended for small products.
The Dell Inspiron Mini Series is a line of subnotebook/netbook computers designed by Dell. The series was introduced in September 2008 amidst the growing popularity of low-cost netbook computers introduced by competitors.
Next Unit of Computing (NUC) is a line of small-form-factor barebone computer kits designed by Intel. It was previewed in 2012 and launched in early 2013. The NUC has developed over ten generations, spanning from Sandy Bridge-based Celeron CPUs in the first generation through Ivy Bridge-based Core i3 and i5 CPUs in the second generation to Gemini Lake-based Pentium and Celeron CPUs and Kaby Lake-based Core i3, i5, and i7 CPUs in the seventh and eighth generations. The NUC motherboard usually measures approximately 10 × 10 centimetres (4 × 4 in), although some models have had different dimensions.
M.2, pronounced m dot two and formerly known as the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a specification for internally mounted computer expansion cards and associated connectors. M.2 replaces the Mini-SATA (mSATA) standard, which uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical card layout and connectors. Employing a more flexible physical specification, M.2 allows different module widths and lengths, which, paired with the availability of more advanced interfacing features, makes M.2 more suitable than mSATA in general for solid-state storage applications, particularly in smaller devices such as ultrabooks and tablets.
LGA 1151, also known as Socket H4, is a type of zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array (LGA) socket for Intel desktop processors which comes in two distinct versions: the first revision which supports both Intel's Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs, and the second revision which supports Coffee Lake CPUs exclusively.
On June 26, 2007, Dell released the new Inspiron desktop series, under the Dell Inspiron branding, as a replacement to the Dell Dimension desktop computers.
Comet Lake is Intel's codename for its 10th generation Core processors. They are manufactured using Intel's third 14 nm Skylake process revision, succeeding the Whiskey Lake U-series mobile processor and Coffee Lake desktop processor families. Intel announced low-power mobile Comet Lake-U CPUs on August 21, 2019, H-series mobile CPUs on April 2, 2020, desktop Comet Lake-S CPUs April 30, 2020, and Xeon W-1200 series workstation CPUs on May 13, 2020. Comet Lake processors and Ice Lake 10 nm processors are together branded as the Intel "10th Generation Core" family. Intel officially launched Comet Lake-Refresh CPUs on the same day as 11th Gen Core Rocket Lake launch. The low-power mobile Comet Lake-U Core and Celeron 5205U CPUs were discontinued on July 7, 2021.
LGA 1700 is a zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array (LGA) socket, compatible with Intel desktop processors Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, which was first released in November 2021.
