Chapter 1 - Motherboards, Processors & Memory

Question 1

tell me 2 other names for the motherboard

1-5

Answer 1

system board

mainboard

Question 2

what is the form factor that is designed to work in standard ATX cases and smaller cases?

1-7

Answer 2

micro ATX

Question 3

I will list the types of ITX. tell me their dimensions.

Mini ITX
Nano ITX
Pico ITX
Mobile ITX

1-7

Answer 3

170 x 170
120 x 120
100 x 72
60 x 60

all in millimeters

Question 4

what is a chipset?

1-9

Answer 4

collection of chips or circuits that perform interface and peripheral functions for the processor.

Question 5

what is the Northbridge?

what are the 3 primary responsibilities of the Northbridge?

1-9

Answer 5

subset of motherboard’s chipset that performs the management of high-speed peripheral communications

communications with integrated video
processor to memory communications
managing the Southbridge

Question 6

what is the frontside bus?

1-10

Answer 6

the communication between the CPU and memory

Question 7

what is the backside bus?

1-10

Answer 7

goes between the CPU and the level 2 or 3 cache memory

Question 8

what is the Southbridge responsible for?

1-10

Answer 8

support for the onboard slower peripherals like parallel ports, serial ports, serial and parallel ATA

Question 9

tell me the 5 main types of expansion slots

1-10

Answer 9

PCI
AGP
PCIe
PCI-X
CNR

Question 10

PCI expansion buses operate at what 2 speeds?
What are their bit rates?
What happens if you mix the 2 together?

1-10

Answer 10

33 and 66 MHz
133 and 266MBps
all adapters will slow to 33MHz

Question 11

what 2 voltages are PCI slots manufactured for?

1-10

Answer 11

3.3 volts and 5 volts

Question 12

tell me the speed range on a PCI-X slot
what’s the max throughput, considering it has a 64 bit bus?

1-11

Answer 12

133MHz to 533MHz

4.3 GBps

Question 13

what is the AGP slot for?

1-13

Answer 13

graphics card

Question 14

what is a lane?
what uses lanes?
what is a link?

1-15

Answer 14

a lanes is a switched point-to-point signal path between any two PCIe components
PCIe
a single lane or combined collection of lanes that the switch interconnects between devices

Question 15

there are 7 different link widths supported by PCIe. tell me what they are.

which ones are most common? (three of them)

1-15

Answer 15

x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, x32

x1, x4, x16

Question 16

what are CNR expansion slots for?

1-17

Answer 16

its the Communications and Networking Riser slot, was a replacement for Intel’s AMR slot, allowed motherboard manufacturers to implement a motherboard chipset with certain integrated features (like adding dolby digital surround to a standard sound chipset for example)

Question 17

what’s another name for virtual memory?
where is it found?

1-19

Answer 17

the swap file, called pagefile.sys

dedicated section of the hard drive

Question 18

what is the best example of firmware that you can think of?

1-24

Answer 18

a computer’s BIOS routine

Question 19

what does POST take care of? (4 things)

1-26

Answer 19

1. verifies the integrity of the BIOS itself
2. verifies and confirms the size of primary memory
3. analyzes and catalogs hardware
4. manages passing of control to the specialed BIOS routines

Question 20

when you flash the BIOS, what are you doing to it?

1-27

Answer 20

giving it an upgrade

Question 21

what does DIP stand for?

1-28

Answer 21

dual inline package

Question 22

what is hyperthreading?
what is another name for a core?

1-32,33

Answer 22

a form of simultaneous multithreading

a die

Question 23

what is CPU throttling?

1-34

Answer 23

reducing the operating frequency of the CPU during times of less demand or during battery operation

Question 24

what is parity checking?

1-38

Answer 24

a rudimentary error checking sceme that offers no error corrections

Question 25

why is ADRAM asynchronous?

1-42

Answer 25

because it operates independent of the CPU’s clock

Question 26

SDRAM shares a common clock signal with the computer’s bus clock. if the bus is 8 bytes wide and the clock signal is 100 MHz, what is the throughput for SDRAM?

1-43

Answer 26

throughput is bytes per second

in this case, it would be 800 MBps

Question 27

tell me the 5 most popular implementations of DRAM.

1-42

Answer 27

SDR SDRAM
DDR
DDR2
DDR3
DRDRAM

Question 28

Different CPUs have different RAM requirements. When Intel made the i7-990X Extreme Edition six-core processor, they did away with the FSB. How did they do that, what remains, and what is it called?

1-46

Answer 28

they moved the memory controller out of the Northbridge and into the CPU.

what remains is what Intel calls the QPI

the QPI is a PCIe-like path that uses 20 bidirectional lanes to move data very very fast between the CPU and RAM

Question 29

tell me the 4 most popular form factors for primary memory modules.

1-49

Answer 29

DIMM
RIMM
SODIMM
MicroDIMM

Question 30

is dual channel optional or required with DRDRAM?

1-51

Answer 30

required

Question 31

ideally, how should the air flow through the system?

1-57

Answer 31

from the front to the back, first across the hard drive, then across the CPU, video card, NIC and motherboard simultaneously, then out the rear exhaust fans

Question 32

tell me the 6 types of advanced CPU cooling methods

1-61,62,63

Answer 32

liquid cooling
heat pipes
peltier cooling devices
phase-change cooling
liquid nitrogen and helium cooling
undervolting

Question 33

what does CMOS stand for?

1-28

Answer 33

complementary metal oxide semiconductor

Question 34

what do parallel components need to be able to communicate?

1-9

Answer 34

a bus

Question 35

what is up-plugging

1-16

Answer 35

the ability to use a higher-capability slot for a lesser adapter

Question 36

give me 3 form factors for motherboards

1-6,7

Answer 36

ATX - advanced technology extended
Micro ATX - works in ATX and smaller
ITX - made by VIA, low power, small form factor