board
1. the boards the acting profession; the stage
2. short for blackboard, chessboard, notice board, printed circuit board (see printed circuit), springboard, surfboard
3. Nautical
a. the side of a ship
b. the leg that a sailing vessel makes on a beat to windward
4.
a. any of various portable surfaces specially designed for indoor games such as chess, backgammon, etc
b. (as modifier): board games
5.
a. a set of hands in duplicate bridge
b. a wooden or metal board containing four slots, or often nowadays, a plastic wallet, in which the four hands are placed so that the deal may be replayed with identical hands
6. the hull of a sailboard, usually made of plastic, to which the mast is jointed and on which a windsurfer stands
7. sweep the board (in gambling) to win all the cards or money
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Board
A long thin piece of lumber cut from a log; typically with a rectangular cross section; can be hand-hewn, hand-sawn, or mill-sawn.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
board
[′bȯrd] (materials)
A piece of lumber whose dimensions are less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) thick and between 4 and 12 inches (10 and 30 centimeters) wide.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
board
1. Lumber less than 2 in. (5 cm) thick and between 4 in. (10 cm) and 12 in. (30 cm) in width; a board less than 4 in. (10 cm) wide may be classified as a strip.
2. Short for switchboard.
3. A box-office ticket board or seating chart.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
board
(1)board
(2)An electronic circuit board.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
BBS
(1) (Bulletin Board System) A computer system used as an information source and forum for a particular interest group. They were widely used in the U.S. to distribute shareware and drivers and had their heyday in the 1980s and first part of the 1990s, all before the Web took off. A BBS functions somewhat like a stand-alone website, but without graphics. However, unlike Web access via one connection to the Internet, each BBS had its own telephone number to dial up.Although still used in some parts of the world where there is little or no Internet access, most every resource found on a BBS migrated to the Web. Software companies may still maintain their old BBS to serve as alternate venues for downloading drivers.
Comm Programs Are Required
To access a BBS, a general-purpose communications program such as Crosstalk or Qmodem Pro is used. The address list in a comm program stores telephone numbers like a Web browser stores bookmarked URLs.
(2) (BIOS Boot Specification) A Plug and Play BIOS format that enables the user to determine the boot sequence. See OPROM.
expansion card
A printed circuit board that plugs into a slot on the motherboard and enables a computer to control a peripheral device. Also called an "interface card," "adapter" or "controller," all the printed circuit boards that plug into a computer's bus are technically expansion cards, because they "expand" the computer's capability. PCI and PCI Express are common expansion cards in use today (see PCI and PCI Express).Cards Used to Be the Norm
In earlier PCs, controllers for drives, input/output ports, display, network and sound all resided on separate plug-in cards. Subsequently, peripheral control was built into the chipset (see PC chipset); however, users still have options to install their own controllers. For example, in order to enhance video game performance, a faster graphics card is plugged into a PCI Express slot, and the internal display circuit on the motherboard is disabled. See motherboard and expansion port. See also bus extender.
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| Card Types |
|---|
| Today, PCI Express (PCIe) is the card interface in common use. These are the expansion cards in desktop computers since the IBM PC AT in 1984. For a brief description of each, see PC data buses. See PCI Express. |
 |
| Card Types |
|---|
| Today, PCI Express (PCIe) is the card interface in common use. These are the expansion cards in desktop computers since the IBM PC AT in 1984. For a brief description of each, see PC data buses. See PCI Express. |
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| Cards Galore |
|---|
| Cards come in many shapes and sizes, but they all conform to the specific pin format on the motherboard sockets. These are graphics cards and Ethernet adapters with some sound boards thrown in for good measure. |
printed circuit board
A rigid, flat board that holds chips and other electronic components. The printed circuit board (PCB) is made of layers, from two to a dozen or more, that interconnect components via copper pathways. The main board in a computer is called the "system board" or "motherboard," while smaller ones that plug into slots on the main board are called "boards" or "cards." See motherboard, expansion card and flexible circuit.Etched Circuits
The "printed" circuit is an etched circuit. A copper foil is placed over a fiberglass or plastic base of each layer and covered with a photoresist. Light is beamed through a negative image of the circuit paths onto the photoresist, hardening the areas that will remain after etching. When passed through an acid bath, the unhardened areas are washed away, and the finished layers are then glued together. The etching process is also used to create integrated circuits (chips).
Starting in the 1940s
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) were first used in the 1940s to connect discrete components together. By the 1960s, they were widely used in all electronic systems, and as integrated circuits emerged in the 1970s, chips were increasingly mounted on the boards. Today, PCBs hold a few discrete elements but mostly chips, and each chip contains from thousands to billions of transistors (see chip). See surface mount, via and discrete component.
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| Motherboard and Expansion Cards |
|---|
| This Baby AT board is an example of an early PC motherboard. It accepted both ISA and PCI cards containing peripheral controllers. See ISA and PCI. |
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| Boards Can Be Very Small |
|---|
| This earlier WOW HD board from SRS Labs created a more dynamic music experience. The complex processing that takes place on tiny PCBs such as this was unthinkable in the early days of computing. (Images courtesy of SRS Labs, Inc.) |
Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Board
a usually rectangular plate of a specific size made from an electrically insulating material that is used in electrical and electronic apparatus as a base for the positioning and mechanical attachment of electrical and electronic components. It may also be used for the application of printed components and for the electrical interconnection of the components by means of wire or printed circuits.
Boards must provide the best possible characteristics for mechanical and electrical strength, stability of geometric dimensions and electrical parameters, resistance to climatic and mechanical influences, and ease of machining. These requirements vary depending on the intended use of the board, the operating conditions, and the arrangement of components. Materials usually used for boards include laminated plastics (electrical Micarta, textolite, and fiberglass laminate), phenol plastics, fluoroplastics, and molding materials of the AG-4 type.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.