Patent Application
20070255878
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motherboard assembly, more particularly to a motherboard assembly with an expansion slot that complies with two different specifications.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional computer motherboard includes a pair of expansion slots, each of which complies with a respective one of the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) specification and the Advance Digital Display 2 (ADDR-2) specification.
The aforementioned conventional computer motherboard is disadvantageous in that it includes the two separate expansion slots, thereby resulting in a larger size for the computer motherboard and in higher manufacturing costs.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a computer motherboard that is capable of overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks associated with the prior art.
According to the present invention, a computer motherboard comprises an expansion slot that complies with a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express x1 (PCIEx1) specification and an Advance Digital Display 2 lane-reversed (ADD2-R) specification, and that includes a set of conductive pins complying with the Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) specification.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram of the preferred embodiment of a motherboard assembly according to the present invention;
Referring to
The computer motherboard 1 includes an expansion slot 2, an I/O connector 3, an I/O controller hub (ICH) 4, a graphic memory controller hub (GMCH) 5, a central processing unit (CPU) 6, and a power connector 7.
Since the feature of the present invention does not reside in particular configurations of the I/O connector 3, the ICH 4, the GMCH 5, the CPU 6, and the power connector 7, which are conventional in construction, a detailed description of the same is omitted herein for the sake of brevity.
In this embodiment, the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 complies with the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express x1 (PCIEx1) specification and the Advance Digital Display 2 lane-reversed (ADD2-R) specification, and includes a set of conductive pins that complies with the Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) specification. Accordingly, the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 is capable of supporting a PCIEx1 compliant interface card 81 (see
It is noted that the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 has 164 conductive pins, each of which is defined as illustrated in Table 1 below.
The first riser card 91 includes conductive pins 910 and first, second and third slots 911, 912, 913. Each of the conductive pins 910 of the first riser card 91 establishes an electrical contact with a respective one of the conductive pins of the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 when the first riser card 91 is inserted into the expansion slot 2. In this embodiment, the first slot 911 of the first riser card 91 complies with the PCIEx1 specification. The second slot 912 of the first riser card 91 complies with the PCI specification. The third slot 913 of the first riser card complies with the ADD2-R specification. Accordingly, with the use of the first riser card 91, the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 is capable of supporting the PCIEx1 compliant interface card 81, the ADD2-R compliant interface card 82, and a PCI compliant interface card (not shown).
In an alternative embodiment, the first slot 911 of the first riser card 91 complies with the PCIEx1 specification. The second slot 912 of the first riser card 91 complies with the PCI specification. The third slot 913 of the first riser card complies with the PCIEx4 and ADD2 non-lane-reversed (ADD2-N) specification.
Similarly, the second riser card 92 includes conductive pins 920 and three slots 921, 922, 923. Each of the conductive pins 920 of the second riser card 92 establishes an electrical contact with a respective one of the conductive pins of the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 when the second riser card 92 is inserted into the expansion slot 2. In this embodiment, the first slot 921 of the second riser card 92 complies with the PCIEx1 specification. The second slot 922 of the second riser card 92 complies with the PCI specification. The third slot 923 of the second riser card 92 complies with the ADD2-R specification. Accordingly, with the use of the second riser card 92, the expansion slot 2 of the computer motherboard 1 is capable of supporting the PCIEx1 compliant card 81, the ADD2-R compliant interface card 82, and the PCI compliant interface card.
While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
