What would the impracticalities be with a universal motherboard?

[max.fitzkin]

Just out of curiosity, what would the impracticalities be in having some sort of a "Universal" motherboard with NO cpu socket in the motherboard, instead having little pci expansion cards with different CPU sockets on them (lga1151, AM4, etc.). They could make the bios flashable with a usb, and then to use a new cpu, all you'd need to do would be to get a new expansion card and flash your bios. I feel like if this were possible, it would have been done, so why isn't it? Does it have to do with chipsets? Cooling? Thanks!!

 

[thx1138v2]

Why not have little PCI expansion cards for the different BIOS's?

But mostly the impracticalities are patents, copyrights, and other legalities. If it were all reduced to a single motherboard it would be a monopoly.

Here's an example from the automotive world. I had a Toyota MR2 at one time. I had the tire company mount and install the tires on it when it needed them. I had a flat and needed to change a tire. In doing so I broke one of the wheel studs. I went to the auto parts house to get a new stud. To my chagrin they didn't have any for that car nor could they get any. Toyota had developed and patented a new thread style for the stud and did not allow anyone else to source the part. When I went to the dealership to get the part they cost $12.00 each. That, for a $0.75 part. That's the power of a patent - $240.00 instead of $15.00 for 20 wheel studs on the car.

 

[max.fitzkin]

Why not have little PCI expansion cards for the different BIOS's?

But mostly the impracticalities are patents, copyrights, and other legalities. If it were all reduced to a single motherboard it would be a monopoly.

Here's an example from the automotive world. I had a Toyota MR2 at one time. I had the tire company mount and install the tires on it when it needed them. I had a flat and needed to change a tire. In doing so I broke one of the wheel studs. I went to the auto parts house to get a new stud. To my chagrin they didn't have any for that car nor could they get any. Toyota had developed and patented a new thread style for the stud and did not allow anyone else to source the part. When I went to the dealership to get the part they cost $12.00 each. That, for a $0.75 part. That's the power of a patent - $240.00 instead of $15.00 for 20 wheel studs on the car.

To answer your first question, because the motherboard wouldn't know what to do with the bios on the PCI card. But, that's beside the point.

I understand that it would be a monopoly, but if it weren't for patents, do you think it would actually work? Like, lets say MSI, ASRock, Asus, etc, all make a functional "Universal" motherboard, and all have different interfaces for flashing the bios, etc, would it be practical? Thanks!

 

[CountMike]

1151 socket actually has 1151 pins and any PCI like board would have to have many more pins just interface with such "universal" MB and that would make it couple feet long if not longer. Tr4 socket for AMD Threadripper processor has 4094 pins. That's just one aspect. What about power ? What about length of leads to interface, that would make power requirements and heat soar ?.
Earlier processors (Pentium 2 and 3, Athlon 1) can get away with slot mounting because of small pin number but even their slots were with finer pins and still longer than PCI.