1. The correct installation steps of the floppy drive. 2. The motherboard has seven interfaces and their respective characteristics.

One:

First remove a 3-inch notch baffle from the panel to install the floppy drive.

Then place the small floppy drive on the 3-fixing bracket, using the same method as installing the optical drive, keeping the front of the floppy drive flush with the chassis panel. Tighten the screw on one side first, using appropriate force to avoid damage to the components.

Since it is inconvenient to install screws on the other side of the chassis, you need to remove the 3-inch fixing bracket, remove the screws of the fixing bracket and pull it out; then fix the other side of the floppy drive.

2:

The interface refers to the adaptation circuit between the motherboard and certain types of peripherals. Its function is to solve the problems in voltage level, signal form and speed between the motherboard and the peripherals. Regarding the matching problem, different types of peripherals require different interfaces. Since its birth, PC has adopted an interface structure to connect with external devices. Advanced interface technology has a very important impact on solving system bottlenecks and improving the performance of the entire microcomputer system. Therefore, during the 30 years of development of PCs, interface technology has also continued to develop and change. The use of standardized interface technology in microcomputer systems has been widely supported by multiple manufacturers, making it easier for manufacturers to produce compatible external devices and software.

Different interfaces are not universal. For example, the interfaces of hard disk and floppy disk drives are incompatible, and a floppy disk drive cannot be connected to the hard disk interface. As microcomputers are equipped with more and more external devices, there are also more and more interfaces between microcomputers and peripheral devices. Some current new interface standards, such as USB, IEEE1394, etc., allow multiple different peripherals to be connected at the same time, so they are also called peripheral buses. In addition, the new interface AGP connected to the display system is also called the AGP bus due to customary reasons (the original display card is inserted into the ISA or PCI bus slot), but in fact it should be an interface standard. This article introduces various interfaces popular in new microcomputers.

AGP interface

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is the accelerated graphics port. It is an interface used to connect the host and the display. It is an interface specification designed to increase video bandwidth. The AGP slot it supports can plug in AGP graphics cards that comply with this specification.

Early display interface cards were connected to the motherboard through the ISA bus, and later PCI display interface cards were connected to the motherboard through the PCI bus. However, neither ISA nor PCI graphics cards could meet the development requirements of 3D graphics/video technology. PCI graphics cards have two main disadvantages when processing 3D graphics. First, the maximum data transfer speed of the PCI bus is only 133MB/S, which cannot meet the data transfer rate requirements for processing 3D graphics. The second is that it requires enough display memory, which will lead to a high cost of the display card. The AGP interface can provide the display card with a data transfer rate of up to 1064MB/S (AGP 4x), and can also use the system's main memory to store 3D data, effectively solving the above two problems and fully meeting the current requirements for processing 3D graphics.

AGP is divided into three working modes: 1x, 2x and 4x, with data transfer rates of 266MB/S, 533MB/S and 1064MB/S respectively. To truly achieve good 3D graphics capabilities, you should purchase a motherboard and AGP graphics card that support AGP 2x or above. Note that if your motherboard only supports 2x, the system will only work in 2x mode even if the graphics card supports 4x. Both Intel i820 and VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipsets support AGP 4x. There are currently many motherboards that support AGP 4x on the market. Together with AGP 4x graphics cards, the graphics processing capabilities of PCs are greatly enhanced.

Since the AGP 4x display card consumes a lot of power and generates high heat, the motherboard is required to provide low voltage (1.5V), high current power and sufficient heat dissipation space for the AGP display card. In order to solve the above problems, an "AGP Pro" specification was developed. The operating frequency and data transfer rate of AGP Pro are the same as AGP 4x, but the power provided to the AGP Pro slot is four times that of standard AGP, up to 110W; and it provides a large enough heat dissipation space for the AGP display card, which can effectively solve Technical difficulties faced by AGP 4x graphics cards. Currently, some motherboards (such as ASUS P3C series motherboards) use AGP Pro technology.

IEEE1394 interface

IEEE1394 is a serial interface standard. This interface standard allows hard disks, printers, scanners, digital cameras, DVD players, video phones, digital camcorders , VCR, HDTV, stereo and other peripherals and household appliances are connected. When computers become home appliances, you only need to pick up the remote control to access the Internet, play online games, control audio-visual equipment, and control the lights, phones and other electrical appliances at home, truly making your home smart.

IEEE1394 can connect up to 63 devices on one port, allowing hot plug and play. External devices can be dynamically configured at any time without shutting down. IEEE1394 will automatically adjust the topology after adding or removing peripherals. Reset the entire peripheral network status. The IEEE1394 standard defines two bus data transmission modes, namely: Backplane mode and Cable mode. The Backplane mode supports transmission rates of 12.5, 25, and 50Mbps, and the Cable mode supports transmission rates of 100, 200, and 400Mbps. At 400Mbps, as long as 50% of the bandwidth is used, high-quality digital video information flow without compression can be supported. IEEE1394 is developing a 1G version. IEEE1394 can reliably transmit audio, video and computer data on the same transmission medium, and the PCI bus can make full use of 1394 for communication. Since chipsets that support the IEEE1394 bus standard have only recently been launched, and there are very few peripheral products that support 1394, it is difficult for IEEE1394 to take shape in the short term.

Motherboard manufacturers have begun to provide IEEE1394 interfaces on motherboards, such as ASUS P3BF-1394. Chipset manufacturer VIA has also released the 1394 chip VIA Fire, code-named VT6305, and will begin mass production in the first quarter of this year. In the future, it is also planning to integrate IEEE1394 into the motherboard chipset.

USB bus

USE (Universal Serial Bus) is called the Universal Serial Bus. It is an interface standard jointly launched by seven major companies: Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and NT (Northern Telecommunications). It is an external bus for connecting peripheral devices, mainly used to connect keyboards, mice, Joysticks, floppy drives, printers, scanners, digital cameras and other equipment.

The USB bus connects USB devices through hub cascading. A USB controller can connect up to 127 peripherals, and the distance (cable length) between each peripheral can reach 5 meters. . The USB unified 4-pin round plug will replace the numerous serial/parallel port (mouse, modem), keyboard and other plugs at the rear of the chassis. USB can intelligently identify the insertion or removal of peripheral devices on the USB chain. With the popularity of USB devices, serial ports, parallel ports, floppy drive interfaces, expansion cards, DIP switches, routes, IRQs, DMA channels, I/O addresses, etc. will all become history.

IDE interface

The IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface is the interface on the motherboard that connects the hard disk and optical drive. Its biggest feature is that the control is integrated into the drive. , to solve the problem of data loss between the drive and the controller, making data transmission very reliable. At present, most motherboards provide EIDE (Enhanced IDE, enhanced IDE) interface, which can connect 4 EIDE devices.

Currently, most motherboard EIDE interfaces support UDMA33 or UDMA66 interface standards. UDMA33 burst data transfer rate can theoretically reach 33MB/S, and the actual test bandwidth is around 26MB-30MB. UDMA66 (or Ultra ATA-66) is the latest standard proposed by Quantum and Intel in February 1998. The burst data transfer rate can theoretically reach 66.6MB/S. UDMA66 uses an 80-pin cable instead (retaining the same characteristics as the current standard). Some computer-compatible 40-pin cables add 40 ground wires) to ensure that interference between adjacent signal lines is reduced during high-speed data transmission.

The UDMA66 interface has become a symbol of new motherboards. Both VIA Apollo Pro/Pro 133A and Intel i8X0 chipsets support UDMA66. Although the 440BX chipset does not support UDMA66, some motherboards using the 440BX chipset also use an additional UDMA66 interface chip to provide support for UDMA66. For example, the MSI "Millennium Star" motherboard (using the 440BX chipset) not only provides IDE1 and IDE2 interfaces that support DMA33, but also provides 2 blue DMA66 interfaces, and also comes with an 80-pin cable.

SCSI interface

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is a small computer system interface and is an intelligent system-level interface standard. The SCSI device plays an active role in the data transmission process and can be specifically executed within the SCSI bus until it is completed before notifying the CPU. Communication between devices does not increase the burden on the CPU. When transferring data between IDE (EIDE) devices, the CPU must intervene, so SCSI is superior to IDE in various performances. In addition to connecting hard disks and optical drives, the SCSI interface can also connect standard external devices such as scanners, printers, and tape drives. The SCSI interface device must be used in conjunction with the SCSI interface card. At present, SCSI equipment is increasing, prices are falling, and it has begun to enter households.

IrDA

IrDA (Infrared Data) is the infrared data transmission interface. No wires are required to use infrared communication. Communication can be implemented by simply aligning the infrared devices of the two devices.

The current standards for infrared interfaces include SIR (Serial Infrared, serial infrared), FIR (Fast Infrared, fast infrared) and VFIR (Very Fast Infrared, super fast infrared). The data transmission rates are respectively 115.2Kbps-9.6Kbps, 1.152Mbps and 4Mbps, 16Mbps.

At present, almost all motherboards provide a 5-pin infrared interface that complies with the SIR standard. You only need to connect the infrared interface connector and open the infrared interface in the BIOS (on most motherboards, the infrared interface occupies COM2). Operating systems that support infrared communication (such as Windows 98) can automatically install infrared communication protocols, communication software, and peripherals with infrared interfaces, such as laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, modems, printers, scanners, digital cameras, Game controllers, mice, keyboards, fax machines, copiers, cameras and other devices implement infrared communication. The advantages of using the motherboard's infrared interface to achieve infrared communication are cheap, low power consumption, and strong confidentiality. The disadvantage is that the distance is very short, and there are two standards: 0.3m and 3m. PC infrared communication technology also supports wireless short-range remote control, which is suitable for controlling the host by wireless keyboards, wireless mice, dual-channel remote control joysticks, game controllers and other devices.

SB-LINK

PCI sound cards will have compatibility issues when running DOS games. Some motherboards provide an SB-LINK interface. Connect the motherboard and sound card when using a Creative or Yamaha sound card. The SB-LINK connection between them can effectively solve the compatibility of sound cards.

DFP/TV-out

DFP (Digtal Flat Panel) is digital video, and TV-out is TV output. The motherboard produced by the SiS 630 chipset can provide digital video interfaces and TV output interfaces, and integrates the 128-bit AGP 4X 3D display chip SiS 300. Therefore, it does not provide an AGP slot, but there is no AGP slot on the motherboard. The AGP slot has the same appearance and structure as the ADIMM slot. This slot can be inserted into an interface card made of SiS 301. This interface card is powerful and supports digital video, TV output and second display.

RJ11

RJ11 is an ordinary home telephone line interface, and now it has also come to PC motherboards. This is an interface provided by the SiS 630 chipset to support Home PNA technology. Home PNA (Home Phoneline Networking Alliance) is a home phone line network system. It can not only connect printers, scanners, laptops and other peripherals, but also all smart devices in the home (fax machines, personal computers, game platforms). , set-top boxes, TVs, home audio-visual entertainment centers) are all connected to the Internet through indoor telephone lines and Modem. In the future, Home PNA technology will also develop towards broadband networks, through Cable Modem (cable television modem), ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop), DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) or ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), *** Enjoy bandwidth.

AMR

On recent new motherboards, a short AMR expansion slot has appeared. By inserting an AMR interface card integrated with audio and modem decoders, you can use The system supports sound card or modem. AMR (Audio/Modem Riser, Audio/Modem Riser) is a set of open industry standards. The expansion card it defines can support both audio and Modem functions. Adopting this design can effectively reduce costs and at the same time solve some functional limitations of integrating the sound and Modem subsystems into the motherboard. The basic AMR architecture supports hardware acceleration of the sound and Modem subsystems. The accelerator is located between the preprocessed data source and the processed data destination. It directly obtains the preprocessed data from the main memory and then transmits it directly through the AC link. Give the decoding chip. Because of this scalability in hardware, system vendors can choose which controller to use as the AC link master. In the future, more and more hardware devices will be integrated together, which not only saves space, but also reduces costs.