PCB

PCB may refer to any of the following:

1. Sometimes abbreviated as a board, a PCB is short for Printed Circuit Board and was invented by Paul Eisler while working on a radio in 1936. A PCB is made of plastic or fiberglass that holds ICs and other components. An example of a PCB found in all computers today is the motherboard. The circuit board is usually green from the solder mask that coats the board, however, it can be another color, including red, blue, or even black. The picture is a close-up of a printed circuit board.

What is the biggest circuit board in a computer?

In a desktop computer, the motherboard is the largest circuit board that connects to and communicates with all other boards and devices.

What are the boards that connect to a motherboard?

In a desktop computer, expansion cards can be added to a computer to upgrade (e.g., a sound card or video card) or add new functionality to a computer (e.g., a video capture card).

What is on a circuit board?

A circuit board may have one or more of the following components soldered to it. More complex circuit boards, like the motherboard, may have other components not found on most circuit boards.

• Capacitor
• Fuse
• Inductor
• Integrated circuit
• Jumpers
• Screw hole aka mounting hole.

2. PCB, which is also short for process control block, is a structured data package that holds information about a computer process. Sometimes called a process descriptor, the operating system creates a PCB when a new process is started. The operating system then uses the PCBs to manage all active and suspended processes.

Components of a process control block

Each process control block consists of three main components.

• Process identification - A unique indentifier for the process, often the primary key in internal database tables containing data about the process.
• Process state - The current state, or status, of the process: new, ready, running, terminated, or waiting.
• Process control - Used by the operating system to control the process. It contains process details, including CPU (Central Processing Unit) registers used, required CPU time, how much memory is needed by the process, I/O (input/output) devices and files used, and the process priority.

Process control blocks are stored in a protected area of computer memory, to protect them from corruption or being overwritten with other temporary data.

Breadboard, Circuit, Circuit traces, Computer acronyms, Electronics terms, Hardware terms, IC, Populate, TLA, Unpopulated board