Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Предоплата всего
Подписываем
UNIT 5. MOTHERBOARD
I. Practice reading the following words:
motherboard, personal, circuit, electronic, controller, component, either, via, determine, features, wireless, expansion, industry, micro, architecture, proprietary, endure, accommodate, video, monitor, prior, processor, universally, current, Ethernet, graphics, existing, extension, firmware, rear, failure, volatile.
II. Before reading the text try to answer these questions:
1. What is a motherboard?
2. What is a motherboard used for?
3. What are the main functions of a motherboard?
III. Read and translate the following text.
Motherboard
A motherboard (MB), also sometimes called a mainboard or system board, is a printed circuit board (PCB) used in personal computers. Most motherboards produced today are designed for IBM-compatible computers. A motherboard, like a backplane, provides the connection by which the other components of the system communicate; but unlike a backplane, it hosts the central processing unit and other devices. Motherboards are also used in many small electronic devices, for example, mobile phones, clocks, watches and PDAs. A typical desktop computer includes a microprocessor, main memory and other essential components on the motherboard. Other components, such as external storage, controllers for video display, sound and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-in cards or via cables. Also, it is increasingly common to integrate some of these peripherals into the motherboard itself in modern computers. The important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor chipset, which provides the interface between the CPU, various buses and external components and determines the features and capabilities of the motherboard. As a rule, modern motherboards include the following components:
Early personal computers (the Apple II and IBM PC) included video interface hardware and minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Modern motherboards always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat. With the steadily declining costs and size of integrated circuits, it is possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard. Some motherboards have 2x PCI-E 16x slots to support special graphics technology called SLI (for Nvidia) and Crossfire (for ATI) to connect two monitors simultaneously. This graphics technology allows two graphics cards to be interconnected to provide higher performance in intensive graphical computing tasks, such as gaming and video-editing.
All motherboards come with at least four USB ports on the rear panel, Ethernet (a standard networking cable for connecting the computer to a network or a modem) and a sound chip which allows sound to be output without any extra components. It makes computers more multimedia-based than before. Cheaper machines have graphics cards built into the motherboard rather than a separate card.
Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such as the northbridge. If the motherboard is not cooled properly, it causes crash of the computer. Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power supply, was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s. Since then, most computers have required CPU fans to be mounted on their heatsinks, because of rising clock speed and power consumption. Newer motherboards include integrated sensors to detect motherboard and CPU temperatures and regulate fan speed. Some higher-powered computers use a water-cooling system instead of fans.
Motherboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes; however, the motherboards used in IBM-compatible computers have been standardized to fit various case sizes. Laptop computers generally use highly integrated, miniaturized and customized motherboards. This is one of the reasons that laptop computers are difficult to upgrade and expensive to repair. Often the failure of one laptop component requires the replacement of the entire motherboard, which is usually more expensive than a desktop motherboard because of a large number of integrated components.
IV. Answer the following questions:
1. What does a typical desktop computer include?
2. What is the main function of a typical motherboard?
3. What is the most important part on a motherboard?
4. What determines the features and capabilities of motherboard?
5. What components can be attached to the motherboard?
6. What do SLI and Crossfire technologies allow?
7. What cooling systems are used in motherboards?
8. What is the difference between desktop and laptop motherboard?
V. Agree or disagree with the following statements:
1. Motherboards are used in mobile phones.
2. The abbreviation MB is used only for megabytes.
3. The chipset is an important component of a motherboard.
4. Integrated sensors detect motherboard and CPU temperatures without regulating fan speed.
5. Laptops use the same motherboards as desktop PCs.
VI. Find in the text words opposite to the following ones:
always, yesterday, unimportant, internal, these, maximum, volatile, few, prohibit, front panel, big, till, easy.
VII. Put as many questions to each sentence as possible:
1. Most of the devices are attached via one or more slots.
2. ISA was the original bus for connecting cards to a PC.
3. These chips determine the features and capabilities of the motherboard.
4. The connectors for external peripherals are nearly always colour coded.
VIII. Match the term with its proper definition:
1. protocol a) a file that has been included as part of an e-mail message
2. compatibility b) the computer which you contact to access the Internet
3. peripherals c) a set of agreed standards
4. bus d) the «brain» of the computer
5. monitor e) the units connected to the CPU of a computer system
6.expansion slot f) it also refers to those applications that are executed in specific types of computers
7. attachment g) an electronic integrated circuit in a small package
8. host h) a CRT device which displays the computer output
9. CPU i) a channel or highway which carries signals between units in the CPU
10. chip j) the connectors that allow the user to install expansion boards to improve the computers performance
IX. What do the following abbreviations stand for?
MB, PC, PCB, CPU, DRAM, BIOS, DIMM, IBM, SLI, USB.
X. Retell briefly the information you have learned from the text.