What is a chipset. Chipset (ChipSet - a set of chips), or a set of system logic, is one or more chips specially designed to ensure the interaction of the CPU with all other components of the computer. The chipset determines which processor can work on a given motherboard, the type, organization and maximum amount of RAM used (unless modern AMD processors have built-in memory controllers), how many and what external devices can be connected to the computer. The main chipset developers for computers are: Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, VIA. Most often, the chipset consists of 2 integrated circuits, called the north and south bridges.
The north bridge provides interconnection between the processor (via FSB - Front Side Bus), RAM (SDRAM, DDR, DDR2 and DDR3), the video card (AGP or PCI Express interfaces) and, through a special bus, with the south bridge, in which most I / O interface controllers. Some north bridges include a graphics core that uses the internal AGP or PCI Express interface — such chipsets are called integrated.
Southbridge devices include PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect) and / or PCI Express bus controllers, disk drives (IDE and SATA hard drives, and optical drives), embedded sound, network, USB, and RAID controllers. The south bridge also ensures normal operation of the system clock (RTC - Real Time Clock) and BIOS chips. Sometimes there are chipsets, consisting of only one chip (one-component chipsets), combining the functionality of both bridges.
Source: 3dnews.ru
Post has been editedGloomy - 06.10.13, 10:52