Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The nForce 900 series for AMD included one chipset, the 980a SLI, supporting processors in Sockets
AM2, AM2+, and AM3, including Phenom, Phenom II, Athlon X2, and Athlon. It supports PCIe
version 2, has 35 PCIe lanes, and can support three-way SLI. For more information, see
NVIDIA also supported SLI on AMD's 900-series chipsets.
Super I/O Chips
A third major chip once seen on many PC motherboards is called the Super I/O chip. This is a chip
that integrates devices formerly found on separate expansion cards in older systems. Newer
motherboards lacking legacy ports have little need for Super I/O chips, and features they once
included such as the CMOS RAM are usually integrated into the South Bridge chipset component.
In most late-model chipsets, the South Bridge chip now includes the functionality of Super I/O chips
as well as providing support for the ports that have replaced the legacy ports incorporated into Super
I/O chips, such as USB, SATA, and IEEE-1394.
For more information about Super I/O chips, see “Super I/O Chips” in Chapter 4, “Motherboards and
Buses,” of
Upgrading and Repairing PCs
, 19
th
Edition, included in its entirety on the DVD packaged
with this topic.
Motherboard Connectors
A modern motherboard contains a variety of connectors.
Figure 4.30
shows the connector locations
on a typical motherboard. Several of these connectors, such as power supply connectors, serial and
parallel ports, and keyboard/mouse connectors, are covered in other chapters.
Figure 4.30. Typical motherboard connectors.
