Motherboard Design Process

MBRFan writes "MBReview has posted the latest revision of their 'Motherboards - The Designing Process' article. This article covers the design process for modern motherboards, and also goes over some of the most common components that can be found. Definite read for information lovers, though beware, it'll take a while to read!"

Motherboard design is true art

[Alwin Henseler]

I have always considered motherboards THE most complex, interesting, and difficult part of a computer to design, and design well.

Every single component on a motherboard can be a magnificient piece of work, but it deals only with a limited number of variables. A CPU or chipset component ultimately only deals with bus protocols and internal design. The same goes for other components like memory or harddrives.

But everything comes together through the motherboard, and that (in my eyes) makes it the hardest part of a system to design well, considering the number of variables. A truly well done MB design is really a piece of art.

Re:Not bad, but

[GigsVT]

I guess the question is, will we ever be able to go back to the days when the actual computer power supply did the supplying of power, rather than having a second power supply on the motherboard?

Or are the extremely low voltages and high currents involved with modern CPUs going to always tie us to the motherboard, due to the necessary wires gauges to carry that sort of power at low voltage?

Re:Not bad, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I always leave 3 or 4 no stuff capacitors (Bulk and HF)on the motherboards I work on (and I AM a power engineer). That way when I do buy one of these systems I can add the extra caps fairly easily and I'll get a system that I can actually trust.

I find that the industry is only now starting to appreciate how difficutly power supply design is.

-Coward cause I don't want my boss to hear (Empty Caps locations means harder buss routing because the vias go alllll the way through the MB)