The main circuit board
of a microcomputer. The motherboard
contains the connectors for attaching
additional boards. Typically, the
motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS,
memory, mass storage interfaces,
serial and parallel ports, expansion
slots, and all the controllers required to
control standard peripheral devices,
such as the display screen, keyboard,
and disk drive. Collectively, all these
chips that reside on the motherboard
are known as the motherboard's
chipset. On most PCs, it is possible to
add memory chips directly to the
motherboard. You may also be able to
upgrade to a faster PC by replacing the
CPU chip. To add additional core
features, you may need to replace the
motherboard entirely. Motherboard is
sometimes abbreviated as mobo.
