On the mainboard, there are many technologies to enhance the power and diversity of the mainboard such as:
- Hyper-Threading
- Multi-Core
- Dual Channel
- Dual BIOS
- RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
- Dual Graphics
1. Hyper-Threading
Hyper-Threading is invented by Intel. This technology allows to execute 2 processing threads on one processor at the same time.
2. Multi-Core
Multi-Core allows processors to have multiple cores. These cores will work in parallel with each other, sharing the computing and processing work that the processor undertakes.
Two common technologies are Dual Core and Quad Core.
3. Dual Channel
This technology allows memory to operate at twice the bandwidth compared to single channel. The meaning is “extend” the bus width between RAM and CPU.
When you mount only 1 stick of RAM, the mainboard runs Single channel.
When you mount 2 RAM sticks, the mainboard runs Dual channel with the following conditions:
- 2 RAM sticks must be mounted on both channels (2 RAM slots of the same color)
- Same type of RAM per channel (DDR2/DDR3/DDR4)
- Same memory capacity per channel
For example, each channel has 2 RAM slots. One black slot and one blue slot. Dual channel only works when 2 sticks of RAM are inserted at the same time into the blue or black slots in both channel A and channel B. Moreover, the capacity of 2 sticks of RAM on the channels must be equal.
How to calculate RAM memory bandwidth: the amount of data that can be accessed of RAM in 1 second
- Bandwidth = BusSpeed x BusWidth x Channel
- In there, Buswidth is usually 64 bits, Channel is a Single (1) or Dual (2) channel.
For example, a RAM system has a bus speed of 400MHz, a buswidth of 64 bits. If using Single Channel, then Bandwidth = 400 x (64/8) x 1 = 3200MBps. If using Dual Channel, then Bandwidth = 400 x (64/8) x 2 = 6400MBps.
4. Dual BIOS
Dual BIOS is a technology which the motherboard is integrated with 2 ROM BIOS. One ROM is Main BIOS and other is Backup BIOS.
5. Dual Graphics
Dual Graphics is a technology that allows attaching more than 2 graphics cards to increase performance, meeting the increasing demands of games and graphics.
This technology applied by nVIDIA is called SLI technology, and ATI is called Crossfire.
6. Dual LAN
Dual LAN is a technology that allows the motherboard to use two ports to communicate with the network at the same time.
7. RAID
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a redundant disk system. The data will be backed up on different drives.
RAID works on Dynamic Disk on the server. RAID has advantages:
- High efficiency data backup
- Easy to use, low cost
- RAID is divided into 7 levels, but the most commonly used is RAID 5.
The most commonly used RAID technology is RAID 5, which requires at least 3 drives. In there, the data is stored to the drives and backup to another drive.
