Usually there are two main microcircuit chips installed on motherboard. Chips are known as chipset and they control flow of data to parts on PC. Motherboard chipset has a North Bridge and a South Bridge. Usually, chipsets are built around specifications of a CPU.

History

1. In 1994, Intel started creating motherboard chipsets as it could not distribute its microprocessors in bulks, until other makers developed motherboards that supported them. So Intel started making a range of processors and chipsets. When Intel developed Pentium processor, it also developed its own motherboard to make sure boards were accessible. Customers were able to contact PC Company and buy full Intel system with a new processor, chipset and motherboard.

Facts

2. Intel has continuous to lead the microprocessor market. Also, it has cornered the chipset and motherboard markets by developing new chipset technology and motherboards for its processors.

Significance

3. Many chipsets are separated into a two-tiered architecture. North Bridge section has cache and main memory controllers. This sector is dependable for handling main tasks like data for AGP. North Bridge is main part of motherboard and normally runs at motherboard's procedure bus speed.

South Bridge sector holds data from PCI and ISA slots. The part runs at a lower speed and generally supports dual IDE hard disk controller interfaces, USB interface, network connections and clock works. North Bridge and South Bridge are occasionally built into a single chip, but is still known as a chipset.

Function

4. Every chip in chipset executes a particular number of tasks and sends data to processor. As new chipsets are intended, motherboards are redesigned around the capabilities of the chipset.

Drivers

5. Chipsets have drivers that can affect speed and steadiness of some devices built into motherboard. It's always a better idea to install new chipset drivers on PC. If you face compatibility problems with motherboard, browse Internet and download a free utility program CPU-Z. The program can recognize chipset that is utilized by motherboard.