I/O Bus Lab

A typical upgrade of a computer involves the addition or replacement of an I/O card. It is important to know the type of I/O bus that your system has in order to purchase the correct type of card. In this lab you will view several different types of I/O busses and adapter cards.

Working in a group of 3-4 students, obtain a motherboard with at least three adapter cards. Draw a diagram of the motherboard but focus on the I/O slots. Label each type of slot indicating what type it is. Your choices are ISA 8 Bit, ISA 16 Bit, VESA Local Bus 32 Bit and PCI 32 Bit.

Remove and sketch the adapter cards that were found on the mother board. Pay close attention to the part of the card that fits into the I/O bus. Label the card if you know what it is, is it a video card, sound card....

You are finished when you have four mother boards and 8 adapter cards drawn and labeled. Show your drawings to your instructor for teacher check.

You should be able to recognize the bus type of each adapter slot or adapter card.