In the past, the chipset consisted of multiple chips, which was gradually reduced to two chips. In the computer field, the term "chipset" usually refers specifically to the chips on the computer motherboard or expansion card. When discussing personal computers based on Intel's Pentium-class processors, the term chipset usually refers to the two main chips on the motherboard: North Bridge and South Bridge.
The manufacturer of the chipset can, and is usually a manufacturer independent of the motherboard. For example, PC motherboard chipsets include NVIDIA’s nForce chipset and VIA’s KT880, both developed for AMD processors, or Intel’s many chipsets. Microcontroller chipsets have been introduced for many years, such as SiS 730. But it wasn't until recently that nForce 4 became popular. The current single chip set is not as complicated as in the past, because Athlon 64 has a built-in memory controller, which replaces the function of the north bridge.
Even though the chipset becomes a single-chip microcomputer, it is customary to use the old name. It can be classified according to usage, number of chips, and degree of integration. Can be divided into equal types, according to the number of chips can be divided into standard South Bridge and North Bridge chipset [Among them, the North Bridge chip plays a leading role, also known as the host bridge (Host Bridge). ] And multi-chip chipsets (mainly used for high-end servers/workstations), according to the degree of integration is divided into integrated chipsets and non-integrated chipsets and so on. The motherboard chipset determines almost all the functions of the motherboard. Northbridge chip provides support for CPU type and main frequency, system cache support, motherboard system bus frequency, memory management (memory type, capacity and performance), graphics card slot specifications, ISA/PCI/AGP slot, ECC correction Wrong support; South Bridge chip provides I/O support, KBC (Keyboard Controller), RTC (Real Time Clock Controller), USB (Universal Serial Bus), Ultra DMA/33(66) EIDE data Transmission mode and ACPI (advanced energy management) support, and determine the type and number of expansion slots, the type and number of expansion interfaces; the highly integrated chipset greatly improves the reliability of the system chip, reduces failures, and reduces Cost of production. For example, some chipsets that incorporate functions such as 3D accelerated display (integrated display chip) and AC'97 sound decoding also determine the display performance and audio playback performance of the computer system.