7 ms·

I always thought that referred to the "set of chips" that were integral to motherboard operation -- during my enthusiast years these were the bios and cmos, HDD

I always thought that referred to the "set of chips" that were integral to motherboard operation -- during my enthusiast years these were the bios and cmos, HDD controllers, then northbridge and southbridge controller, and eventually audio and network integrated circuits.

yuhong 13y ago
It generally only included the northbridge and southbridge.
csense 13y ago
I'm not really a hardware person, but I always thought "chipset" meant the on-board non-CPU chips that don't drive external hardware, but are nonetheless an essential part of the PC architecture expected to be present by all OS's, like the 8253 timer [1], the PIC [2], or the DMA controller [3]. By contrast, I'd say hardware like the 16550 UART [4] isn't part of the chipset, rather it's part of the serial port which it drives. > northbridge and southbridge controller Yeah, memory and I/O control is part of the chipset too, since a CPU without I/O or memory is just an expensive paperweight (or, if powered, an expensive heater). > HDD controllers, audio and network integrated circuits. I'd consider these to be more like devices or device drivers. > bios and cmos This is kind of a special case. If you ask a CPU guy, it's not a part of the chipset, they're just memory modules with different properties from normal RAM. If you ask a motherboard guy, it is part of the chipset. It depends on who you ask. I can't really cite these distinctions anywhere, it's more along the lines of the intuitions I've picked up from spending decades around computers. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8253 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8253 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Interrupt_Controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Interrupt_Controll... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16550 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16550
- stephengillie 13y ago
  I stand thoroughly corrected.

yuhong 13y ago

It generally only included the northbridge and southbridge.

csense 13y ago

I'm not really a hardware person, but I always thought "chipset" meant the on-board non-CPU chips that don't drive external hardware, but are nonetheless an essential part of the PC architecture expected to be present by all OS's, like the 8253 timer [1], the PIC [2], or the DMA controller [3]. By contrast, I'd say hardware like the 16550 UART [4] isn't part of the chipset, rather it's part of the serial port which it drives. > northbridge and southbridge controller Yeah, memory and I/O control is part of the chipset too, since a CPU without I/O or memory is just an expensive paperweight (or, if powered, an expensive heater). > HDD controllers, audio and network integrated circuits. I'd consider these to be more like devices or device drivers. > bios and cmos This is kind of a special case. If you ask a CPU guy, it's not a part of the chipset, they're just memory modules with different properties from normal RAM. If you ask a motherboard guy, it is part of the chipset. It depends on who you ask. I can't really cite these distinctions anywhere, it's more along the lines of the intuitions I've picked up from spending decades around computers. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8253 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8253 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Interrupt_Controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Interrupt_Controll... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16550 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16550

stephengillie 13y ago
I stand thoroughly corrected.