AT Motherboards and Baby AT Motherboards

In the 1980's and early 1990's, most PC motherboards were AT motherboards. They only had a large 5 pin DIN connector for connecting a keyboard. All other ports were supported on the motherboard through headers. Ports like serial and parallel were available on metal brackets that slid into the slots on the back of a computer case and were connected to the motherboard headers via cables.

As miniaturization got better, the larger AT motherboards got smaller and were called Baby AT motherboards.

AT and Baby AT motherboards started with the 80386 CPU's and stayed as a mainstay through the 80486 and then Pentium CPU's. Some Baby AT motherboards were made in slot 1 to support Pentium II and some in socket 370 to support Pentium III CPU's. That's where they pretty much ended.

Are Baby AT motherboards still used? Very much so. There are many legacy applications in which these AT motherboards are used to run computers that control expensive machinery. Industrial machines quite often are used for 30 - 40 years or more and while computer technology changes very rapidly, these machines don't need to re-tool. Such industrial users continue to seek these legacy motherboards but there are very few vendors left that still stock these motherboards. Interloper.com is one of the few that does.

If you are looking for an AT Motherboard, check out the motherboard search engine and see if you can locate on that is right for you.