Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Third-Party Chipsets for Intel Processors
Over the years, SiS, ULi (now part of NVIDIA), ATI (now part of AMD), and VIA have produced
chipsets for Intel processors. The following sections discuss some of the more popular versions of
these chipsets by vendor.
SiS Chipsets
SiS offered several chipsets for Intel processors, including integrated chipsets, chipsets for use with
discrete video accelerator cards, and some that support Rambus RDRAM. SiS chipsets for the
Pentium 4 and Pentium D use one of several high-speed South Bridge equivalents (SiS 96x series
Media I/O chips) instead of integrating North and South Bridge functions into a single chip. SiS North
and South Bridge chips for the Pentium 4 and Pentium D use a high-speed 16-bit connection known as
MuTIOL (Multi-Threaded I/O Link) instead of the slow PCI bus as with older chipsets.
For more information about SiS chipsets made for the Pentium 4 and Pentium D, see “SiS Chipsets,”
in Chapter 4, “Motherboards and Buses,” of
Upgrading and Repairing PCs,
19
th
Edition, found in its
entirety on the DVD packaged with this topic.
ULi Electronics Chipsets
ULi Electronics (formerly known as ALi Corporation and Acer Laboratories, and later acquired by
NVIDIA) has produced several chipsets for the Pentium 4 and Celeron 4 processors, such as the
Aladdin P4 and the M168x series. ULi also produced several South Bridge chips in the M15xx series
for the Pentium 4 as well as AMD Athlon XP and Athlon 64 processors.
For more information about ULi (ALi) chipsets made for the Pentium 4, see “ULi Electronics
Chipsets,” in Chapter 4, “Motherboards and Buses,” of
Upgrading and Repairing PCs,
19
th
Edition,
found in its entirety on the DVD packaged with this topic.
ATI Chipsets
ATI's original line of chipsets for the Pentium 4 integrated Radeon VE-level 3D graphics, DVD
playback, and dual-display features with high-performance North Bridge and South Bridge designs.
ATI used its high-speed A-Link bus to connect its North and South Bridge chips. These included the
ATI IGP 330/340/350/360 series. The Radeon 9x00 IGP family was ATI's second generation of
chipsets for the Pentium 4. The 9x00 IGP North Bridge chips featured Radeon 9200-level graphics
with DirectX 8.1 hardware support and support for multiple monitors. On the other hand, the
companion IXP 300 South Bridge supported Serial ATA and USB 2.0 as well as six-channel audio.
The Radeon 9x00 IGP family included the 9100 IGP, 9100 Pro IGP, and 9000 Pro IGP.
ATI's line of Pentium 4/Core2-compatible chipsets included the RC410 (integrates Radeon X300 3D
graphics) and the RS400 (integrates Radeon X300 3D graphics and includes support for PCI Express
x16 video). Both were sold under the Radeon Xpress 200 brand name. Although ATI had made South
Bridge chips in the past, its Radeon Xpress 200 North Bridge chips could be paired with either ATI's
own IXP 450 or ULi's M157x South Bridge chips. ATI's South Bridge chips included the IXP 150,
200, 250, 300, 400, and 450.
For a comparison chart of ATI chipsets for the Pentium 4, see “ Chipsets,” in Chapter 4,
“Motherboards and Buses,” of
Upgrading and Repairing PCs,
19
th
Edition, found in its entirety on
the DVD packaged with this topic.
