A motherboard is the primary board and foundation of a computer that is also known as mboard, mobo, mainboard, modb, base board, backplane board, system board, planar board, or main circuit board. On Apple computers, it is called a logic board.
The CPU, memory RAM expansion slots, ROM, USB ports, and PCI slots are attached to the motherboard in the computer. It provides connectivity between the RAM, CPU, and all other hardware components.
Also, it contains controllers for devices such as a keyboard, mouse, hard drive, and DVD drive. Each motherboard has chipset, which is the collection of controllers and chips. Every new motherboard uses a new chipset at the time they are developed. Although these motherboards are usually faster and more efficient as compared to their predecessors, the older components often do not work with new chipsets.
There are many types of motherboards available that are designed in order to fit in several types and sizes of computers. Every motherboard is not able to work with all types of memory and processor, as they are designed to work with particular types of memory and processor.
In 1981, the first motherboard was used in the IBM personal computer. At the time, IBM gave it the name of ‘planar’ instead of a motherboard.