Specifications
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Motherboard Types and Features
3
THE CHIPSET
Recall from Chapter 1 that a chipset is a set of chips on the motherboard that collectively
controls the memory, buses on the motherboard, and some peripherals. A few motherboard
manufacturers, such as Intel and AMD, make their own chipsets. But other motherboard
manufacturers use chipsets made by another manufacturer. The major chipset manufacturers
are Intel (www.intel.com), AMD (www.amd.com), NVIDIA (www.nvidia.com), and SiS
(www.sis.com), in that order.
Intel has produced far too many chipsets to list them here. To see a complete comparison
chart of all Intel chipsets, start at the Intel link http://compare.intel.com/PCC/intro.aspx.
A few of the more popular chipsets are listed here:
High-performance chipsets. The X58 chipset supports the Intel LGA1366 socket, the Core
i7 processors, and PCI Express Version 2. It can also support either SLI or CrossFire tech-
nologies. (SLI and CrossFire are two competing technologies that allow for multiple video
cards installed in one system.) The X58 chipset does not control memory because the mem-
ory controller is embedded in the Core i7 processor. The 975X Express chipset supports the
Pentium Extreme Edition processor, multiple video cards, and up to 8 GB of memory.
Mainstream desktop chipsets. The P45, P43, P35, G45, and G31 chipsets support Core
2 Quad and Core 2 Duo Intel processors. P45, P43, and G45 can support up to 16 GB
of DDR3 or DDR2 memory. The P35 chipset supports up to 8 GB of DDR3 or DDR2
memory. It also supports the Core 2 Extreme processor. The G31 chipset supports up to
4 GB of DDR2 memory. The Q45 chipset uses DDR3 or DDR2 memory and supports
the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors. All these chipsets use socket LGA775.
Value desktops. The 910GL, 845E, 845G, and 865G chipsets support the Pentium 4,
Celeron, and Celeron D processors in low-end systems. The 910GL chipset uses the
LGA775 socket. The 845E, 845G, and 865G chipsets use the 478PGA socket. All
these chipsets use DDR memory.
Older value desktops. The 845 and 845GL chipsets support the Pentium 4 or Celeron
processors in a low-end system using the 478PGA socket. They support up to 2 GB of
DDR memory.
Beginning with the Intel i800 series of chipsets, a hub is used to connect buses. All I/O buses
(input/output buses) connect to a hub, which connects to the system bus. This hub is called the
hub interface, and the architecture is called Accelerated Hub Architecture (see Figure 3-7). The
fast end of the hub, which contains the graphics and memory controller, connects to the sys-
tem bus and is called the hub’s North Bridge. The slower end of the hub, called the South
Bridge, contains the I/O controller hub. All I/O devices, except display and memory, connect
to the hub by using the slower South Bridge. Notice in Figure 3-7 the primary PCI Express
slot, the slot designated for the video card, has direct access to the North Bridge, but other PCI
Express slots must access the processor by way of the slower South Bridge. On a motherboard,
when you see two major chips for the chipset, one is controlling the North Bridge and the
other is controlling the South Bridge (refer to Figure 3-1). Other chipset manufacturers besides
Intel also use the North Bridge and South Bridge architecture for their chipsets.
The latest Intel chipset for desktop PCs is the X58 chipset, which is used by the mother-
board in Figure 3-1. You can see a close-up of part of this board in Figure 3-8. The board
comes with a fan that can be clipped to the top of the North Bridge to help keep the chipset
A+
220-701
1.2
A+ 220-701
A+ Exam Tip
The A+ 220-701 Essentials exam expects you to be familiar with the desktop processor
sockets in use today. You also need to know about notebook processor sockets, which are covered in Chapter 11.
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