the.com/motherboard
the unsung diva everything else plugs into and quietly bows to
means The main printed circuit board of a computer, into which the processor, memory, and other components connect and through which they communicate.
from A compound of "mother," used in the sense of a central or originating source from which others branch, plus "board," the flat panel of a circuit. The naming follows an old computing convention where smaller boards plugged into the big one were called "daughterboards" or "daughter cards" — making the motherboard the parent that births and binds the family. The term took hold as personal computers spread in the late 20th century.
- name origin
- smaller add-ons were called daughterboards
- layered
- often 6 to 12 stacked copper layers inside
- battery
- a coin cell keeps the clock alive for years
- buses
- thin traces move data at billions per second
- form factor
- ATX standard has reigned since 1995
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