What is the core and soul of a motherboard?

The core and soul of the motherboard is: the motherboard chipset. The motherboard chipset is the core component of the motherboard and can be compared to the bridge between the CPU and peripheral devices. For the motherboard, the chipset almost determines the function of the motherboard, which in turn affects the performance of the entire computer system. The chipset is The soul of the motherboard.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

The core and soul of the motherboard is: the motherboard chipset.

The motherboard chipset (Chipset) is the core component of the motherboard and can be compared to the bridge between the CPU and peripheral devices. In the computer industry, the manufacturer that designs chipsets is called Core Logic. The Chinese meaning of Core is core or center. The literal meaning alone is enough to show its importance.

For the motherboard, the chipset almost determines the function of the motherboard, which in turn affects the performance of the entire computer system. The chipset is the soul of the motherboard. The performance of the chipset determines the performance and level of the motherboard.

There are many models and types of CPUs with different functions and features. If the chipset cannot work well with the CPU, it will seriously affect the overall performance of the computer and even fail to work properly.

Function

The motherboard chipset determines almost all the functions of the motherboard.

• Northbridge chip

  Provides support for CPU type and main frequency, system cache support, motherboard system bus frequency, memory management (memory type, capacity and performance), graphics card slot specifications, ISA/PCI/AGP slot, ECC error correction and other support;

• Southbridge chip

  provides I/O support Support, providing support for KBC (Keyboard Controller), RTC (Real-Time Clock Controller), USB (Universal Serial Bus), Ultra DMA/33(66) EIDE data transmission method and ACPI (Advanced Energy Management), etc. And determine the type and number of expansion slots, the type and number of expansion interfaces (such as USB2.0/1.1, IEEE1394, serial port, parallel port, notebook VGA output interface), etc.;

• Height The integrated chipset

  greatly improves the reliability of the system chip, reduces failures, and reduces production costs. For example, some chipsets that incorporate functions such as 3D accelerated display (integrated display chip) and AC'97 sound decoding also determine the display performance and audio playback performance of the computer system.

• Identification of chipset

  This is also very easy. Take the Intel 440BX chipset as an example. Its Northbridge chip is the Intel 82443BX chip, which is usually located close to the CPU on the motherboard. Due to the high heat generated by the chip, a heat sink is installed on this chip due to the location of the slot. The Southbridge chip is located near the ISA and PCI slots, and the name of the chip is Intel 82371EB. The arrangement of other chipsets is basically the same.

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