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Chapter 4. Motherboards and Buses > Answers and Explanations
Answers and Explanations
| 1. | A, B, C, and E. The motherboard is essential to computer operation in large part because of the two major buses it contains: the system bus and the I/O bus. Together, these buses carry all the information between the different parts of the computer. |
| 2. | A, C. Motherboards use expansion slots to provide support for additional I/O devices and high-speed video/graphics cards. The most common expansion slots on recent systems include PCI, AGP, and PCI-Express (also known as PCIe). Some systems also feature AMR or CNR slots for specific purposes. |
| 3. | A, B, C, and D. SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is a more flexible drive interface than PATA (ATA/IDE) because it can accommodate many devices that are not hard disk drives. Devices are high-performance hard drives, image scanners, and removable media, as well as laser printers and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives. |
| 4. | A, B, and C. The ATX family of motherboards has dominated desktop computer designs since the late 1990s. ATX stands for Advanced Technology Extended, and it replaced the AT and Baby-AT form factors developed in the mid 1980s for the IBM PC AT and its rivals. The ATX family includes Mini-ATX and FlexATX. |
| 5. | G. Motherboards in both the ATX and BTX families feature a variety of integrated I/O ports, including serial, parallel, USB, PS/2, audio, and Ethernet. These are found in as many as three locations. All motherboards feature a rear port cluster, and many motherboards also have additional ports on the top of the motherboard that are routed to header cables that are accessible from the front and rear of the system. |
| 6. | D. After installing a sound card, you must connect 1/8-inch mini-jack cables from speakers and the microphone to the sound card. Most sound cards use the same PC99 color-coding standards for audio hardware that are used by onboard audio solutions. |
| 7. | B. DDR SDRAM memory modules and their corresponding slots have 184 pins. Older SDRAM modules are 168 pin. DDR2 SDRAM modules are 240 pin. There are no 255-pin memory modules. |
| 8. | A. A common speed for PCI is 33MHz. PCI might also operate at 66MHz depending on several factors. Other faster expansion buses can operate at speeds of 133MHz, and beyond. |
| 9. | C. PCIe (PCI Express) has four main types: x1, x4, x8, and x16. PCI (and its derivative PCI-X), and AGP are not described in this manner. AGP shows the x after the number. |
| 10. | B. AGP 4x can transmit 1,066MBps whereas PCIe x1 only transmits 500MBps. PCI is far slower at 133MBps, and PS/2 sends a very small amount of information, only what is needed to input information from a keyboard or mouse. |
| 11. | A. SATA 2nd generation is the fastest at 3.0GBps. SCSI Ultra 160 comes in second at 1.6GBps. IDE/PATA is limited to a maximum of 1.3GBps. |
| 12. | A, C. Before disconnecting the ribbon cables, you should turn off the power switch and disconnect the AC power cable from the power supply, and disconnect all external and internal cables attached to add-on cards after labeling them for easy reconnection. |
| 13. | A, D. If the computer does not start, make a quick check of the main power connections and important devices such as CPU, RAM, and video card. Whether or not the CD/DVD drive is connected or OS is installed should not affect the computer starting. However, these things could affect the computer trying to boot. |
| 14. | B. The headphone connection should be lime green according to the PC99 color-coding standard. Pink is the microphone input, light blue is the line in, and gold is the game port. |
| 15. | C. Just prior to reconnecting the AC power, you should connect any cables required for the card. Previous to this, the card should be inserted, pushed firmly into the slot, and any card brackets should be secured. Restarting (or starting) the system should be the first thing you do. |
Case Study 1 Solution
| 1: | Refer to Figure 4-1, repeated here. This shows a typical ATX form factor motherboard. All of the components are labeled. If you haven’t already, memorize the components you see in the figure. Then compare them to your motherboard components.
Figure 4-1. A typical motherboard. |
