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Motherboard Chipset: Definition - What Does Mean?

A chipset is a set of electronic components on a computer motherboard that manages the flow of data between the CPU, memory, and peripherals. It typically includes a northbridge that connects the CPU and memory to fast devices, and a southbridge that connects to slower peripherals. Over time, more components have been integrated directly into CPUs, reducing the role of traditional chipsets. Now chipsets mainly handle remaining slower devices like storage and USB through an integrated southbridge known as the Platform Controller Hub.

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404 views3 pages

Motherboard Chipset: Definition - What Does Mean?

A chipset is a set of electronic components on a computer motherboard that manages the flow of data between the CPU, memory, and peripherals. It typically includes a northbridge that connects the CPU and memory to fast devices, and a southbridge that connects to slower peripherals. Over time, more components have been integrated directly into CPUs, reducing the role of traditional chipsets. Now chipsets mainly handle remaining slower devices like storage and USB through an integrated southbridge known as the Platform Controller Hub.

Uploaded by

Manilyn Pelaez
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Motherboard Chipset

Definition - What does Chipset mean?


A chipset is a group of interdependent motherboard chips or integrated circuits that
control the flow of data and instructions between the central processing unit (CPU)
or microprocessor and external devices. A chipset controls external buses, memory
cache and some peripherals. A CPU is unable to function without impeccable chipset
timing.
A chipset includes the circuit board layout/functionality and circuit mechanisms.
Varieties include microprocessors and modem card chipsets. In addition, a CPU has
several different chipsets that vary according to architecture.

Techopedia explains Chipset
A chipset is specifically designed for a motherboard. The chipset and motherboard must
be compatible with the CPU to prevent system failover. Most chipset drivers are
manually updated and installed.
A chipset has two sections – southbridge and northbridge – with specific sets of
functions that communicate between the CPU and external devices.
The southbridge, which is not directly connected to the CPU, is also known as the
input/output controller hub. Southbridge handles the motherboard's slower connections,
including input/output (I/O) devices and computer peripherals like expansion slots
and hard disk drives.

The northbridge connects the southbridge to the CPU and is commonly known as the
memory controller hub. The northbridge handles a computer's faster interaction
requirements and controls communication between the CPU, RAM, ROM, the basic
input/output system (BIOS), the accelerated graphics port (AGP) and the southbridge
chip. The northbridge links I/O signals directly to the CPU. The CPU uses the
northbridge frequency as a baseline for determining its operating frequency.
A chipset and device drivers are compatible when an operating system is initially
installed. However, device drivers eventually become outdated due to subsequent
hardware and software installations. Outdated or incompatible device drivers create
compatibility issues, lack of features and sub-par device performance.

In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components in an integrated


circuit known as a "Data Flow Management System" that manages the data
flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. It is usually found on
the motherboard. Chipsets are usually designed to work with a specific family
of microprocessors. Because it controls communications between the processor and
external devices, the chipset plays a crucial role in determining system performance.
Intel ICH7 Southbridge on Intel D945GCPE Desktop Board

Contents

 1Computers
 2Move toward processor integration in PCs
 3See also
 4Notes

Computers[edit]
In computing, the term chipset commonly refers to a set of specialized chips on
a computer's motherboard or an expansion card. In personal computers, the first chipset for the IBM PC
AT of 1984 was the NEAT chipset developed by Chips and Technologies for the Intel 80286 CPU.

Diagram of Commodore Amiga's Original Chip Set

A part of an IBM T42 laptop motherboard. CPU: Central processing unit. NB: Northbridge. GPU: Graphics
processing unit. SB: Southbridge.

In home computers, game consoles and arcade-game hardware of the 1980s and
1990s, the term chipset was used for the custom audio and graphics chips. Examples
include the Commodore Amiga's Original Chip Set or SEGA's System 16chipset.
The term chipset often refers to a specific pair of chips on the motherboard:
the northbridge and the southbridge. The northbridge links the CPU to very high-speed
devices, especially RAM and graphics controllers, and the southbridge connects to
lower-speed peripheral buses (such as PCI or ISA). In many modern chipsets, the
southbridge contains some on-chip integrated peripherals, such as Ethernet, USB,
and audio devices.
Motherboards and their chipsets often come from different manufacturers. As of 2015,
manufacturers of chipsets for x86motherboards
include AMD, Broadcom, Intel, NVIDIA, SiS and VIA Technologies. Apple computers
and Unix workstations have traditionally used custom-designed chipsets.
Some server manufacturers also develop custom chipsets for their products.
In the 1980s, Chips and Technologies pioneered the manufacturing of chipsets for PC-
compatible computers. Computer systems produced since then often share commonly
used chipsets, even across widely disparate computing specialties. For example,
the NCR 53C9x, a low-cost chipset implementing a SCSI interface to storage devices,
could be found in Unix machines such as the MIPS Magnum, embedded devices, and
personal computers.

Move toward processor integration in PCs[edit]


Traditionally in x86 computers, the processor's primary connection to the rest of the
machine was through the motherboard chipset's northbridge. The northbridge was
directly responsible for communications with high-speed devices (system memory and
primary expansion buses, such as PCIe, AGP and PCI cards, being common examples)
and conversely any system communication back to the processor. This connection
between the processor and northbridge is commonly designated the front side
bus (FSB). Requests to resources not directly controlled by the northbridge were
offloaded to the southbridge, with the northbridge being an intermediary between the
processor and the southbridge. The southbridge handled "everything else", generally
lower-speed peripherals and board functions (the largest being hard disk and storage
connectivity) such as USB, parallel and serial communications. The connection between
the northbridge and southbridge was normally the PCI bus.[1]
Before 2003, any interaction between a CPU and main memory or an expansion device
such as a graphics card(s) — whether AGP, PCI or integrated into the motherboard —
was directly controlled by the northbridge IC on behalf of the processor. This made
processor performance highly dependent on the system chipset, especially the
northbridge's memory performance and ability to shuttle this information back to the
processor. In 2003, however, AMD's introduction of the Athlon 64-bit series of
processors[2] changed this. The Athlon64 marked the introduction of an integrated
memory controller being incorporated into the processor itself thus allowing the
processor to directly access and handle memory, negating the need for a traditional
northbridge to do so. Intel followed suit in 2008 with the release of its Core i series
CPUs and the X58 platform.
In newer processors integration has further increased, primarily through the inclusion of
the system's primary PCIe controller and integrated graphics directly on the CPU itself.
As fewer functions are left un-handled by the processor, chipset vendors have
condensed the remaining northbridge and southbridge functions into a single chip.
Intel's version of this is the "Platform Controller Hub" (PCH), effectively an enhanced
southbridge for the remaining peripherals—as traditional northbridge duties, such as
memory controller, expansion bus (PCIe) interface and even on-board video controller,
are integrated into the CPU die itself (the chipset often contains secondary PCIe
connections though). However, the Platform Controller Hub was also integrated into the
processor package as a second die for mobile variants of the Skylake processors.

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