Introduction to the Core group knowledge of the motherboard

The chipset (chipset) is the core component of the motherboard. If the central processing unit (CPU) is the heart of the entire computer system, then the chipset will be the torso of the entire body. In the computer industry, the design chipset is called "Core Logic". The Chinese meaning of core is central or central. The literal meaning of light is sufficient to see its importance.

For motherboards, the chipset almost determines the functionality of the motherboard, which in turn affects the performance of the entire computer system. The chipset is the soul of the motherboard. Chipset performance, determines the performance of the motherboard and the level of quality. This is because the current CPU models and a wide range of functional characteristics, if the chipset can not work well with the CPU, will seriously affect the overall performance of the computer, even not working properly.

The motherboard chipset almost determines the full functionality of the motherboard, in which the type of CPU, system bus frequency of the motherboard, memory type, capacity and performance, card slot specifications, etc., are determined by the North Bridge chip in the chipset.

The types and number of expansion slots, the type and number of extension interfaces (such as USB 2.0/1.1, IEEE1394, serial port, and the VGA output interface of the notebook) are determined by the South Bridge of the chipset. Some chipsets also determine the display performance and audio playback performance of the computer system due to the inclusion of the 3D accelerated display (integrated display chip), AC ' 97 sound decoding, and other functions.

The present chipset is evolved from the so-called VLSI: Gate array control chips in the past 286 times. Classification of chipsets:

By purpose, can be divided into servers/workstations, desktops, notebooks and other types.

According to the number of chips, can be divided into single chipset, the standard South, North Bridge chipset and multi-chip chipset (mainly for high-end servers/workstations).

According to the level of integration, can also be divided into integrated chipset and non-integrated chipset and so on.

Desktop chipsets require strong performance, good compatibility, interchangeability and scalability, and the highest price/performance requirements, and moderate consideration of the user's scalability for a certain period of time. The ability to expand is highest among the three.

In the earliest notebook design, there was no separate notebook chipset, which used the same chipset as the desktop. With the development of technology, notebook dedicated CPU appears, there is a matching notebook dedicated chipset. Notebook chipsets require low energy consumption, good stability, but the overall performance and scalability, but also the lowest in the three.

The overall performance and stability of the server/workstation chipset is highest in the three, and some products even require full workload throughout the year. It is also the highest in terms of supported memory capacity, which can support up to more than 10 GB or even dozens of GB of memory, and has the highest data transfer speed and security requirements. As a result, its storage devices also use SCSI interfaces rather than IDE interfaces, and more RAID mode to improve performance and ensure data security.

To date, the manufacturers that can produce chipsets are:

Intel (United States)

VIA (Taiwan, China)

SiS (Taiwan, China)

ALi (Taiwan, China)

AMD (USA)

NVIDIA (the USA)

ATI (Canada)

Server Works (USA)

Among them, Intel and VIA are the most common chipsets. On the Intel platform of the desktop, Intel's own chipset has the largest market share, and the product line is complete, high, medium, low-end and integrated products are available. VIA, SIS, ALI and the latest addition of ATI several, add up all can only occupy a relatively small market share, but mainly in the low-end and integration areas. On AMD platforms, AMD itself usually plays a pioneering role, with fewer products and a small market share, while VIA has the largest market share of the AMD platform chipset, but it is now subject to strong challenges from Up-and-comer NVIDIA. The latter, by virtue of the powerful performance of its NFORCE2 chipset, has become the most outstanding chipset product of the AMD platform, thus gaining a lot of market share from VIA. SIS and ALi still play a supporting role, mainly in the middle, low-end and integration areas.

On the laptop side, Intel's platform has the absolute advantage, so Intel's notebook chipset also occupies the largest market share, other manufacturers can only play a supporting role, as well as the market share of the AMD platform for a small product design.

On the server/workstation side, Intel platform is an absolute advantage, Intel's own server chipset products occupy the vast majority of the low-end market. With Intel's authorization, server works has the largest market share in the high-end segment, even Intel's original server board, and a product with the server works chipset.

In the server/Workstation chipset area, the server Works chipset means High-performance products, while the AMD server/workstation platform, due to a smaller market share, is mainly based on AMD's own chipset products.

Chipset technology, which has also been phenomenal over the years, from the ISA, PCI to AGP, from ATA to Sata,ultra DMA technology, dual-channel memory technology, high-speed front-end bus, and so on, each new technology progress, has brought about the improvement of computer performance. In the 2004, chipset technology will face major changes, most notably the PCI Express bus technology, which will replace PCI and AGP, greatly improve the bandwidth of the device, resulting in a revolution in computer technology. Chipset technology, on the other hand, is also moving towards high integration, such as the integration of memory controllers within the AMD Athlon CPU, which greatly reduces the difficulty of chipset manufacturers designing products. And now the chipset products have integrated audio, network, SATA, RAID and other functions, greatly reducing the cost of users.

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