Chipsets
In computing, the term chipset is commonly used to refer 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 was the NEAT chipset 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 16 chipset.
Based on Intel Pentium-class microprocessors, 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.
The manufacturer of a chipset often is independent from the manufacturer of the motherboard.
Current manufacturers of chipsets for x86 motherboards 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
Traditionally in x86 computers, the processor's primary connection to the rest of the machine is
through the motherboard chipset's northbridge. The northbridge is directly responsible for
communications with high-speed devices (System memory, and primary expansion buses such as
PCIe, AGP, PCI cards being common examples) and conversely any system communication
back to the processor. This connection between the processor and northbridge is traditionally
known as the front side bus (FSB). Requests to resources not directly controlled by the
northbridge are offloaded to the southbridge - with the northbridge being an intermediary
between the processor and the southbridge. The southbridge traditionally handles "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 does not have a common name, but is usually a high speed
interconnect proprietary to the chipset vendor. Thus any interaction between a CPU and main
memory, any 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.
However in 2003 AMD's introduction the Athlon 64-bit series of processors[1] changed this. The
Athlon64 marked the introduction of an integrated memory controller being incorporated into the
processor itself 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 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 itself, chipset venders
have condensed the remaining north 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 itself.
