History Of The Computer Motherboard

The History Of The Computer Motherboard



1981 IBM "Planar" Breadboard



The Planar Breadboard was the first motherboard used in a PC, chips where wired together and in housed RAM and CPU with supplier parts and keyword/cassette tapes



1984 IBM Personal Computer AT



IBM came up with the AT (advanced technology) design in 1984 that the component-based PC which we know today was born. The AT form factor proved very popular and became a standardised motherboard to fit all desktops and tower cases



1986 Birth Of Gigabyte



Formed by Yeh Pei-Cheng in Taiwan



1987 Elitegroup Form



Former worlds largest motherboard manufacturer. Creator of ECS boards



1989 ASUS Founded



A small Taiwanese company formed by former ACER employees took their name from Pegasus. they would later become the world's biggest motherboard manufacturer



1993 Intel Develops PPGA For Setting Chipset to Motherboard



Plastic pin grid array was developed by Intel in 1993. it assisted in integrated circuit packaging



1995 Intel Releases new motherboard ATX form factor



The ATX was the first major motherboard development since the AT in 1984, featuring many improvements including new dimensions and layout, improving space and interchange ability of parts. it solved many issues faced by system builders from the original AT.



1997 Intel Begins Manufacturing Motherboards



Intel starts its own motherboard division with a great reputation on stability



1998 Micro ATX Boards Produced



The first backward-compatible board that although nearly half the size of a standard ATX board was fully compatible. usually they contain more integrated peripherals and are made for smaller case PCs but less expansion slots.



2001 Mini ITX Produced By VIA



The small ITX seized motherboard was launched in 2001 and was built for small cases, yet still manages to pack out all the features of a regular ATX but again with less expansion ports, usually just the one and performance can be as strong as an ATX and Micro ATX.



2005 Intel Introduces Balanced Technology Extended



Intel's concept to redesign the ATX case was short lived. Mainly because compatible components where limited, as well as it not being able to accept energy efficient components.



2007 ASUSTek Becomes Worlds Largest Maker Of Computer Motherboards



Intel's concept to redesign the ATX case was short lived. Mainly because compatible components where limited, as well as it not being able to accept energy efficient components.



2009 The Mobile-ITX



As of 2012, VIAs Mobile-ITX is the world's smallest compliant motherboard form factor. Just 60mm by 60mm.



Motherboard Sizes (Form Factors)



WTX 356 x 425

AT 350 x 305

Baby-AT 330 x 216

BTX 325 x 266

ATX 305 x 244

EATX 305 x 330

LPX 330 x 229

microBTX 264 x 267

NLX 254 x 228

Ultra ATX 244 x 367

microATX 244 x 244

DTX 244 x 203

FlexATX 229 x 19

Mini-DTX 203 x 170

EBX 203 x 146

microATX 171 x 171

Mini-ITX 170 x 170

EPIC 165 x 115

Mini ATX 150 x 150

ESM 149 x 71

Nano-ITX 120 x 120

COM Express 125 x 95

ESMexpress 125 x 95

ETX/XTX 114 x 95

Pico-ITX 100 x 72

PC/IO4 96 x 90

ESMini 95 x 55

Qseven 70 x 70

mobile-ITX 60 x 60

CoreExpress 58 x 65



Motherboards Sold in 2011

355.2 million



Mobile-ITX ACTUAL SIZE