PC Jargon

PC MOTHERBOARD JARGON

Advance Configuration and Power Interface (ACPT)

The power management specification of PC97. Motherboard chipsets which support ACPI provide an interface for Windows or any other operating system to manage power usage.

AGP

A graphics bus interface for high performance, 3D graphics. The current generation of motherboards offer AGP 4X support, as opposed to AGP 2X for older boards.

Audio Codec 97 (AC97)

A specification defining how an audio compression-decompression (Codec) must be attached to the chipset of a motherboard. It will take only the simple addition of a software Codec to give your motherboard the features of any audio card. A97 is now a standard feature in most modern motherboards.

Basic Input Output System (Bios)

The program that enables a computer to boot after power-up. Bios is a built-in set of routines that serve as an interface between the computer's operating system and hardware devices. It is stored on a ROM chip generally located near the computer's real-time clock or lithium battery. By processing requests from applications and drivers, the Bios permits the user to control hardware settings.

Bus Mastering Mode

To reduce the workload of the CPU, bus mastering IDE devices transfer data to and from memory without the need to interrupt the CPU. Special bus mastering drivers are required to let devices operate in this mode.

Chipset

The backbone of all motherboards. A chipset describes the set of chips around which a motherboard is built. A chipset is typically formed by two main components: North Bridge and South Bridge.

North Bridge is the part of the chipset that controls the data flow and communication between the processor, memory, cache, graphics, PCI bus and its elements.

South Bridge is the part that controls data flow and communication between the north bridge, ISA bus, IDE bus and I/O elements supporting the socket 462 or socket A processors from AMD.

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)

There are many types of RAM used in modern motherboards, with the synchronous DRAM variety (PC100 and PC133) being most common. Newer DRAM variants include double-data rate DRAM (DDR DRAM) and Rambus DRAM (RDRAM).

Front Side Bus

This generally refers to the speed of the bus that connects the micro-processor to its external memory subsystem for performance optimization. The back side bus speed, often a slower bus speed, is derived through a bridge device that sits between the front-side bus and other buses such as PCI, ISA and others.

LAN Desktop Client Manager (LDCM)

The software to administer the network through the desktop management interface (DMI). A motherboard that complies with DMI will be required so as to provide an easy way for corporate administrators to monitor the status of the client workstations in an organization.

Socket 370/Socket 7/Slot 1/Slot A/Socket A

The types of CPU sockets found in different motherboards.

Socket 370 supports flip-chip pin-grid-array (FC-PGA) processors like the Pentium III and Celeron.

Socket A supports newer Athlon and Duron processors.

Slot 1 and Slot A support Intel Pentium II/early Celerons and older AMD Athlon processors respectively.

System Management Bus (SM Bus)

A bus developed for component communication and is required for jumperless motherboards to detect the presence or absence of specific components and to communicate their settings with the Bios.

Ultra ATA 100

A data interface that enables a motherboard to support hard drives to transfer or receive data at 100Mbps. It is an upgrade from the older ATA 66 standard.

Wake-on-ring/Wake-on-LAN

With ACPI specifications and ATX power soft-on/off, systems have the ability to wake automatically whenever a phone rings to be receive an incoming fax or a data call. Similarly, a PC that has powered down or in sleep mode can "wake" automatically whenever network activity is detected through its network interface card.