MOTHERBOARD
![]() The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993. This board has 6 ISA slots but few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the lack of external connectors.
![]() An 8-bit ISA (XT-bus) mouse adapter
![]() The ABIT KT7, an ATX format motherboard
![]() | ![]() An Acer E360 motherboard made by Foxconn, from 2005, with a large number of integrated peripherals. This board's nForce3 chipset lacks a traditional northbridge.
View full size image ![]() Diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots.
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![](resources/VIA_Mini-ITX_Form_Factor_Comparison.jpg)
As new generations of components have been developed, the standards of motherboards have changed too - for example with AGP being introduced, and more recently PCI Express.
However the basic standardized size and layout of motherboard have
changed much more slowly, and are controlled by their own standards.
This is helped by the fact that in many ways, the list of components a
motherboard must include changes far slower than the components
themselves. For example, north bridge
controllers have changed many times since their original introduction,
with many manufacturers bringing out their own versions, but in terms
of form factor standards, the requirement to allow for a north bridge
has remained fairly static for many years.