printed circuit board Last modified: Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Sometimes abbreviated PCB, a thin plate on which chips and other electronic components are placed. Computers consist of one or more boards, often called cards or adapters. Circuit boards fall into the following categories: motherboard : The principal board that has connectors for attaching devices to the bus. Typically, the mother board contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system. On PCs, the motherboard is often called the system board or mainboard. expansion board : Any board that plugs into one of the computer's expansion slots. Expansion boards include controller boards, LAN cards, and video adapters. Daughtercard : Any board that attaches directly to another board. controller board: A special type of expansion board that contains a controller for a peripheral device. When you attach new devices, such as a disk drive or graphics monitor, to a computer, you often need to add a controller board. Network Interface Card (NIC) : An expansion board that enables a PC to be connected to a local-area network (LAN). video adapter: An expansion board that contains a controller for a graphics monitor. Printed circuit boards are also called cards.
•E-mail this definition to a colleague• Sponsored listings PCB Accessories - Provides internet-based prototype circuit boards. Stencil kits offer do-it-yourself SMT assembly with solder paste stencils. PCB123: Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) - Offers Internet-based quoting and ordering for up to 8-layer PCB prototypes and production. Geared toward production with online quote engine. Flex Circuits - Find flex circuits in Digi-Key's online catalog, featuring thousands of electrical components, parts and products from hundreds of manufacturers. For internet.com pages about printed circuit board . Also check out the following links! PCB Design Conference Information Provides details on upcoming PCB Design conferences. Printed circuit board fabricators home page The Printed Circuit Board Fabricators home page, sponsored by RD Chemical, offers advice and insights on the process for producing a printed circuit board. Each fabrication process is described in great detail. In addition, this site offers a question and answer section, as well as links to related Web sites. Sponsored listings Lenthor Engineering; The Flex & Rigid-Flex Resource - Flex & Rigid-Flex circuit design, fabrication and assembly. Thinking Flex, Think Lenthor. Making things flexible in a rigid world. Flexible Circuit Design - Specializes in flexible circuit applications with critical delivery schedules. Complete in-house design capabilities and manufacturing services. Printed Circuit Board Repair - Designs and develops LED lamps, panel lights, and board-level indicators to provide primary status indication and backlighting of switches. Flexible Circuit Board Design - Offers quickturn PCBs and flex circuits PCBs in 5 days or free, plus free tooling! Call us for a quote. Flexible PCB Prototyping - FlexCTech, with domestic and overseas capabilities, designs and provides flex and rigid-flex circuits in prototype to production quantities.	Hardware Motherboards backplane chip CNR controller daughtercard expansion board expansion slot fab fabless FC-PGA form factor local-area network motherboard PGA server blade silicon video adapter Give Us Your Feedback Shopping printed circuit board Products Compare Products,Prices and Stores Shop by Category: Printer Accessories 9 Model Matches Books 13 Model Matches