X-Stream Technologies: Chipset

Monday, June 11, 2012

Chipset

In the computer, the chipset makes the connection between processor and everything else. If you think of the processor as the brain, the chipset is the spine and central nervous system. The processor communicates with the memory, adaptor cards, or any other device on your PC without going through the chipset. This chipset consist two components;

1.North Bridge

North bridge makes the bond between the high-speed processor bus and the slower AGP and PCI busses. North Bridge is the only motherboard component that normally runs at full motherboard (Front Side Bus) speed. Nowadays latest chipsets use a single chip north bridge. Older chipset’s need three individual chips to make up the absolute north bridge.

2.South Bridge

South bridge makes the bond between the PCI bus and the even slower ISA bus. South bridge is the lower speed component of the chipset. It always has been a single individual chip. The south bridge connects to the PCI bus and contains the bond to the ISA bus. It also typically contains dual IDE hard disk controller, USB interfaces, Interrupt and DMA controllers.

Super I/O chip

It’s a separate chip that connects to the south bridge and not really considered as a part of the chipset. It contains all the standard peripherals that are built in to the motherboard. Serial ports, parallel port, Floppy controller, Keyboard and Mouse interfaces are typically integrated to Super I/O chip. Latest motherboards incorporate the south bridge and super I/O chip into a single chip.

Chipset Manufacturers

There are several chipset manufacturers available in the PC market. Following is a list of chipset manufacturer.

Intel

(420TX, 430LX, 810, 810E, 850, 845, 865P, 875P, 945GCNL, 945GC, G31, G35, G41, P35, P55)