Why are they called motherboards?

[denis280]

And the most frequently used (in my opinion) MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Because it would sound VERY weird if it was the other way...

Forgot that one.good call:awe:

 

[poohbear]

If the problem with "motherboard" is that it's sexist, why would you propose "fatherboard"?

Actually, mother doesn't intrinsically mean female. Essentially it means source. Most words that have something similar to mater come from the same meaning:

matter / material = source = that from which everything is made
matrix = womb = place where something takes form
metropolis = mother city = the hub of activity

Motherships usually have flight decks that smaller ships take off from and return to. In the real world it's the same: the mother ship is the larger craft that launches a landing craft or rover, and aircraft carriers are also sometimes referred to as motherships.

Motherboard fits the pattern because it's the power source and communication center for most other components.

Best answer right there. Its semantics, nothing to do with sexism.

 

[Jbonham_86]

In spanish we call it the Baseboard (Placa base)

 

[piasabird]

Who cares what it is called? That is what it is. Originally computers were designed differently. There were no integrated circuits Logic boards representing a computer command had to be hard wired one board at a time and then plugged into a backplane or main board in a series. To make the computer do something else you had to rearrange the commands that were individual hard wired circuit boards.

IBM and some other companies then made Mainframes

History was changed with the Integrated Circuit.

The idea and first patent was already there in 1949 (Siemens).
The first working integrated circuit was demonstrated by Fairchild on September 1958
Commercial use of ICs only really took off in 1963 with TTL circuits coming on the market (Sylvania), followed in 1966 by the 7400 TTL family which became an industry standard. Compatible parts were made by Motorola, AMD, Fairchild, Intel, Intersil, Signetics, Mullard, Siemens, SGS-Thomson and National Semiconductor.

IBM and some other companies then made Mainframes using integrated circuits. Some IBM mainframes used water cooling. So overclocking computers started a long time ago.

Around 1978 IBM came out with a 8 bit computer called the PC. They were in a hurry and rushed it to market.

I person by the Name of Gordon Campbell who was once lead in Marketing at IBM started work on new IC Circuit designs. He developed 5 IC circuts that were designed to run a cmputer. These 5 chips replaced 63 IC's on an IBM AT motherboard. IBM made the mistatke of using these chips that were developed independently which meant that they did not own the patent. This was the first Chipset made. This invention made it possible for any company to make a motherboard. This was done in 1985.

However, I cant tell you who coined exactly the term motherboard, or why ships are called Her, or why we refer to the Mother Earth. Maybe because Mother is the giver of Life. Think of a litter of pups sucking their mothers teats. Then picture a motherboard. You decide. Motherboard or Baseboard or Mainboard. I guess they all could be used. Motherboard is just more popular in the USA.

I could suggest a couple of books.

One is
Accidental Empires, How the boys of silicon valley, make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still cant get a date -- Robert X Cringely.

Two is
Where Wizards stay up late The origins of the Internet -- Karie Hafner & Matthew Lyon

These books are both old and if you can find them I would guess it would cost $5 each. Try Amazon.com They make a good background in the study of the computer industry. Book one has a lot of Info about how Bill Gates misled others and put himself on the top of the computer software business.