| The actual microprocessor and its associated electronic circuits are packaged in a protective outer packaging. When you look at a processor, it's the packaging you see and not the microprocessor itself. Typically, the processor's packaging is ceramic or plastic. |
| The outer covering of the processor protects its core (also called the die) that contains the microchip and the wiring that connects the chip to the processor's mounting pins. A variety of packaging types have been used on processors. Here are the ones you should know for the A+ Core Hardware exam. |
| Pin Grid Array (PGA):Common among early processors, the mounting pins are located on the bottom of the chip in concentric squares. The earliest chips were packaged in the Ceramic PGA (CGPA). Later chips , including some current ones, use the Plastic PGA (PPGA). The early Pentium chips used a variation that staggered the pin pattern (in order to cram more pins onto the package) called the Staggered PGA (SPGA). The Pentium III features a variation of the PGA package with its Slot 370-like Flip Chip-Pin Graphics Assembly (FC-PGA) |
Plastic Ball Grid Array (PBGA):The Primary difference between this packaging technology and the PGA is that the PBGA doesn't have mounting pins projecting from the bottom of the chip, which eliminates the threat of bent pins on the bottom of the processor. Otherwise, these package styles look similar. |
Single Edge Connector (SEC):You may find a few variations on the packageing technology, including the Single Edge Contact Cartridge (SECC) and others. They all boil down to a packaging style that is mounted perpendicular to the motherboard into a single slot, much like expansion cards and memory modules. The Pentium II was the first processor to sport this new packaging style. This style made cooling the processor easier. |