What is motherboard

Motherboard is a computer's central communication backbone connectivity point through which all components and external peripherals are connected. These may include processor sockets, DIMMs, HTX, PCIe, PCIe and M2 slots as well as power supply connections. Typically motherboards provide additional connectivity through a southbridge chip such as PCIe, SATA, Thunderbolt, USB, and others. CPU to RAM and PCI are typically connected via point-to-point interconnects such as HyperTransport, Quick Path Interconnect or UltraPath Interconnect.

The first motherboard is used in the IBM personal computer released in 1981. At the time, IBM called it a planar rather than a motherboard.