In x86-based personal computers, 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 2021[update], manufacturers of chipsets for x86 motherboards include AMD, Intel, VIA Technologies and Zhaoxin.
In the 1990s, a major designer and manufacturer of chipsets was VLSI Technology in Tempe, Arizona. The early Apple Power Macintosh PCs (that used the Motorola 68030 and 68040) had chipsets from VLSI Technology. Some of their innovations included the integration of PCI bridge logic, the GraphiCore 2D graphics accelerator and direct support for synchronous DRAM, the forerunner of DDR SDRAM memory.
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
Intel Cannon Lake Platform Controller Hub die
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. In 1990s and early 2000s, the interface between a northbridge and southbridge was 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 series of processors[2] changed this. The Athlon 64 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) while AMD's version was called Fusion Controller Hub (FCH; this name stopped being used with the release of the Zen architecture), 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.[3] The northbridge to southbridge interconnect interfaces used now are DMI (Intel) and UMI (AMD).
^Schmid, Patrick (16 July 2002). "Chipset Basics: Meaning And Functions". Tom's Hardware. Purch. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
^Wasson, Scott (23 September 2003). "AMD's Athlon 64 processor". The Tech Report. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^Shimpi, Anand Lal (9 June 2013). "The Haswell Ultrabook Review: Core i7-4500U Tested". AnandTech. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
May 10, 2023
chipset, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, november, 2017, le. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Chipset news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message In a computer system a chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more ULSI integrated circuits known as a Data Flow Management System citation needed that manages the data flow between the processor memory and peripherals It is usually found on the motherboard of computers 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 i945GC Northbridge with Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 2 40 GHz on an Intel D945GCCR motherboard circa 2007 Contents 1 Computers 2 Move toward processor integration in PCs 3 See also 4 NotesComputers EditIn 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 the original Amiga chipset Part of an IBM T42 laptop motherboard showing the CPU GPU Northbridge NB and Southbridge SB In home computers game consoles and arcade hardware of the 1980s and 1990s the term chipset was used for the custom audio and graphics chips Examples include the Original Amiga chipset and Sega s System 16 chipset In x86 based personal computers 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 2021 update manufacturers of chipsets for x86 motherboards include AMD Intel VIA Technologies and Zhaoxin In the 1990s a major designer and manufacturer of chipsets was VLSI Technology in Tempe Arizona The early Apple Power Macintosh PCs that used the Motorola 68030 and 68040 had chipsets from VLSI Technology Some of their innovations included the integration of PCI bridge logic the GraphiCore 2D graphics accelerator and direct support for synchronous DRAM the forerunner of DDR SDRAM memory 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 Intel Cannon Lake Platform Controller Hub die 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 In 1990s and early 2000s the interface between a northbridge and southbridge was 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 series of processors 2 changed this The Athlon 64 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 while AMD s version was called Fusion Controller Hub FCH this name stopped being used with the release of the Zen architecture 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 3 The northbridge to southbridge interconnect interfaces used now are DMI Intel and UMI AMD See also Edit Amiga portalAcer Laboratories Incorporated Comparison of Nvidia nForce chipsets List of AMD chipsets List of ATI chipsets List of Intel chipsets Northbridge Redpine Signals Silicon Integrated Systems Southbridge Very large scale integration or VLSI VIA chipsetsNotes Edit Schmid Patrick 16 July 2002 Chipset Basics Meaning And Functions Tom s Hardware Purch Retrieved 14 June 2018 Wasson Scott 23 September 2003 AMD s Athlon 64 processor The Tech Report Retrieved 5 December 2022 Shimpi Anand Lal 9 June 2013 The Haswell Ultrabook Review Core i7 4500U Tested AnandTech Retrieved 5 December 2022 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Chipset amp oldid 1152602341, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
