Tangible Item In Research

Hunter Garrett
Post #2

Motherboards

One of the most significant and useful pieces of electronic hardware is the motherboard.  It is what makes a computer function and without it; our world today would not be the digital computerized technological modern marvel that it is today.  While this piece of hardware technically falls under its own field of computer engineering, it does still fall under electrical engineering in general due to the broad area that the field encompasses.  The motherboard is an immensely fascinating piece of technology that is as intricate and complex as it appears.  It is an important component in electrical engineering considering how it is crucially needed in the world today and is always undergoing constant evolution and improvement.  It is something that will be tampered with frequently whether it is a simple cleaning, an upgrade, a repair, or even a reapplication of thermal paste.

I have worked on numerous motherboards before in the past in which majority of them were for desktops while only one was for a laptop.  I have also researched motherboards and all of their hardware components extensively as well and have even read numerous product reviews on these various components.  When you think of what makes a computer work, it seems very astonishing realizing how a relatively compact printed circuit board can make it work through a collaboration with other various hardware components.  Upon opening a computer case for the first time and unscrewing the motherboard, you notice that everything is connected to the motherboard in an almost overwhelming setup of wires and connectors.  The motherboard itself is a somewhat large printed circuit board covered in an intricate layout of copper tracing and solder connections and bridges that transfer the electrical current that is released from the power supply to various leads, wires, and connectors that are attached to the board.  It contains the most vital pieces of hardware needed by the computer which includes the CPU, GPU or Graphical Processing Unit, RAM memory, and the north bridge and south bridge chips with the necessary heat sinks.  This is also where the computer's BIOS or Basic Input Output System is stored and it even contains the CMOS battery, ports and jacks, transistors, resistors, and capacitors.  Everything else is attached to the motherboard and housed within the case itself which includes the fans, the hard drive, the SSD or Solid State Drive, the power supply, and the optical drive.

The motherboard essentially contains an entire array of components where each component has more components contained within itself.  If one thing was to go wrong or malfunctions in the board, then the whole computer won't run properly if not at all regardless of how small and insignificant that part may be due to the whole computer utilizing one complete system.  This tangible piece of hardware is what makes majority of the difference between the obsolete and the current spec computers especially in terms of processing speed and graphical performance.  Software and the Operating System or OS is also a critical part of the computer itself although it is intangible and stored in the actual hard drive and SSD itself in its own partitioned section.  When you look at the history of the computer from the very first consumer purchasable personal computer the Altair 8800, to the Apple 2, to the Macintosh, to the multitude of mass produced computers today by huge companies such as HP, Apple, Dell, and Acer; you realize how far the motherboard has come throughout the past few decades in terms of aesthetic changes and technological advances.

Indeed, the motherboard is an interesting piece of technology to work on that captivates your attention upon simply examining it and trying to comprehend how it works that makes a computer operate the way that it does.  In electrical engineering, this type of technology and hardware will most likely be handled a lot due to its required constant evolution and improvement throughout the years given that it is a key necessity in the world today.  It is something that may be typically taken for granted considering how common the computer is today.  However, after realizing how much is involved with the motherboards in terms of getting everything to run properly, you notice that it is a technological innovation that we should be grateful to have considering how the computer makes our lives much easier.  It is something that will constantly be examined, taken apart, and re-assembled repeatedly and the satisfaction that you receive from modifying this circuit board and holding this core of the computer in your hands is really something great.  Without this vital piece of electronic hardware, the computer wouldn't exist as a tool for us to utilize, our world would be set back a tremendous distance, we would struggle, and we wouldn't be able to advance technology rapidly at the rate we are going right now.