A chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more ULSI integrated circuits known as a “Data Flow Management System” . It manages the data flow between the processor, memory, and peripherals in a computer system. Typically, chipsets are found on the motherboard of computers . They are usually designed to work with a specific family of microprocessors and play a crucial role in determining system performance .
In personal computers, the term chipset commonly refers to a set of specialized chips on a computer’s motherboard or an expansion card . The chipset is responsible for communications between the processor and external devices . It consists of two main components: the northbridge and the southbridge . The northbridge links the CPU to high-speed devices such as RAM and graphics controllers, while the southbridge connects to lower-speed peripheral buses like PCI or ISA . Modern chipsets often integrate some on-chip peripherals, including Ethernet, USB, and audio devices .
The term chipset was also used for custom audio and graphics chips in home computers, game consoles, and arcade hardware of the 1980s and 1990s . Examples include the original Amiga chipset and Sega’s System 16 chipset . However, in x86-based personal computers, it typically refers to the northbridge and southbridge pair of chips on the motherboard .
For more information about chipsets, you can refer to this article on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipset) .