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" 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.
In 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.
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. , 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.