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28-582: The P35 Express (codenamed Bearlake ) is a mainstream desktop computer chipset from Intel released in June 2007, although motherboards featuring the chipset were available a month earlier. The P35 Express chipset supports Intel's LGA 775 socket and Core 2 Duo and Quad processors, and is also known to support 45 nm Wolfdale/Yorkfield dual and quad core CPUs. Theoretically, Intel also dropped support for Intel's Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors with this chipset although late Pentium 4 processors, including both

56-607: A ZX-F appeared on GeekBench in 2020. The KX-7000 was finally released in December 2023, two years late. According to test results reported by Tom's Hardware, this processor was twice as fast as the KX-6000 series that came before it. The benchmark score indicated that not only had clock speeds improved substantially, but also instructions-per-clock. In comparison, the KX-7000 was deemed to be on par with similar processors made by AMD or Intel in

84-484: A chipset; it only continues to be present for interfacing with low speed I/O. AMD server CPUs adopt a self contained system on chip design instead which doesn't require a chipset. The northbridge to southbridge interconnect interfaces used now are DMI ( Intel ) and UMI ( AMD ). These can also be used for connecting from a processor to a chipset. Zhaoxin Zhaoxin is a joint venture between VIA Technologies and

112-457: A set of electronic components on one or more integrated circuits that manages the data flow between the processor , memory and peripherals . The chipset 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 . Sometimes

140-492: A traditional northbridge to do so. Intel followed suit in 2008 with the release of its Core i series CPUs and the X58 platform. In newer processors integration has further increased, primarily through the inclusion of the system's primary PCIe controller and integrated graphics directly on the CPU itself. As fewer functions are left un-handled by the processor, chipset vendors have condensed

168-673: Is a complete re-design of the VIA Isaiah. It is also a departure from earlier microarchitectures, such as ZhangJiang, which were a lightly modified version of a VIA Technologies (Centaur) architecture. WuDaoKou was a new and complete SoC design. Changes implemented in the ZX-D included the integration of a northbridge , like in modern x86 designs, as well as the addition of Chinese cryptographic functions. The ZX-D series also had an integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) based on S3 Graphics technology (previously owned by VIA). The former ZX naming

196-541: Is thought that the basis is the VIA Isaiah 2 architecture. Like the VIA processors they were based on, early ZX processors were ball grid array chips sold pre-soldered onto a motherboard. Zhaoxin came to the attention of the North American and European technology press when, in late 2017 and early 2018, it launched the ZX-D processor and revealed plans for future products. Zhaoxin calls the ZX-D architecture " Wudaokou "; this

224-714: The NCR 53C9x , a low-cost chipset implementing a SCSI interface to storage devices, could be found in Unix machines such as the MIPS Magnum , embedded devices, and personal computers. Traditionally in x86 computers, the processor's primary connection to the rest of the machine was through the motherboard chipset's northbridge. The northbridge was directly responsible for communications with high-speed devices (system memory and primary expansion buses, such as PCIe, AGP, and PCI cards, being common examples) and conversely any system communication back to

252-498: 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

280-602: The 1990s, a major designer and manufacturer of chipsets was VLSI Technology in Tempe, Arizona. 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. The Apple Macintosh SE , Macintosh II and later the Quadras series used chipsets from VLSI Technology , even though they were ASICs designed by Apple. After

308-399: The 32-bit-only (5x0) and the 32-bit/64-bit (5x1), and a few others, were fully supported. It is notable for providing the first commodity support of DDR3 SDRAM . It also supports DDR2 SDRAM ; the choice is made by the motherboard manufacturer, and some manufacturers supported both DDR3 and DDR2 on the same motherboard, but only one memory type at a time, often 4× DDR2 or 2× DDR3, as in

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336-564: The CPU die itself (the chipset often contains secondary PCIe connections though). However, the Platform Controller Hub was also integrated into the processor package as a second die for mobile variants of the Skylake processors. AMD's FCH has been discontinued since the release of the Carrizo series of CPUs as it has been integrated into the same die as the rest of the CPU. However, since

364-634: The Gigabyte GA- EP35C -DS3L/R; but DDR3-only models, such as the Gigabyte GA- EP35T -DS3L/R and the DDR2-only models, such as the Gigabyte GA- EP35 -DS3L/R were also made, concurrently. Another notable point is that it does not provide Parallel ATA support; most 2007 motherboards added PATA support via a JMicron JMB361 or JMB363 chip. Chipset In a computer system, a chipset is

392-581: The KX-6000 was reported to being built on a 16 nm TSMC process. The chip has a DirectX 11.1 compatible iGPU. In 2022, Zhaoxin was noted to have added ZX-E specific compiler support for the GNU Compiler Collection . The successor to the KX-6000, the ZX-F or KX-7000 processor series, was initially planned for release in 2021. The KX-7000 chip was reported to be planned for release on a 7 nm process with DDR5 support. An alleged benchmark result for

420-522: The Shanghai Municipal Government. In 2021 it was reported that VIA has a 14.75% shareholding in the company. China has a domestic policy to "replace all foreign hardware and software from its public infrastructure with homegrown solutions" by 2023 (the so-called 3–5–2 policy). VIA holds a x86 license which allows its subsidiaries to produce compatible microprocessors; this allows Zhaoxin to develop x86 computer chips. The architecture of

448-571: The initial ZX family of processors is a continuation of VIA 's Centaur Technology x86-64 Isaiah design. The ZX-A and ZX-B are based on the VIA Nano X2 C4350AL. The ZX-B is identical to the ZX-A, except that it is manufactured by Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation (HLMC) . The ZX-C is based on the VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4. Zhaoxin calls this architecture "Zhangjiang", however, it

476-451: The interface between a northbridge and southbridge was the PCI bus. Before 2003, any interaction between a CPU and main memory or an expansion device such as a graphics card(s) — whether AGP , PCI or integrated into the motherboard — was directly controlled by the northbridge IC on behalf of the processor. This made processor performance highly dependent on the system chipset, especially

504-559: The mid-to-late 2010s. Zhaoxin was itself reported as saying that the KX-7000 reached the same level of performance as the seventh-generation Intel Core i5-7400 (which was launched in 2017). In 2020 Zhaoxin announced it was planning to release a dedicated graphics card . Zhaoxin processors have mainly been used for Chinese laptops. The Zhaoxin ZX-C+ 4701 CPU was reviewed in 2020, and showed significantly worse performance against older Intel (i5 2500K) and AMD (Athlon 3000G) processors. The ZX-D

532-450: The northbridge's memory performance and ability to shuttle this information back to the processor. In 2003, however, AMD's introduction of the Athlon 64 series of processors changed this. The Athlon 64 marked the introduction of an integrated memory controller being incorporated into the processor itself thus allowing the processor to directly access and handle memory, negating the need for

560-532: The processor. This connection between the processor and northbridge is commonly designated the front-side bus (FSB). Requests to resources not directly controlled by the northbridge were offloaded to the southbridge, with the northbridge being an intermediary between the processor and the southbridge. The southbridge handled "everything else", generally lower-speed peripherals and board functions (the largest being hard disk and storage connectivity) such as USB, parallel and serial communications. In 1990s and early 2000s,

588-515: The release of the Zen architecture, there's still a component called a chipset which only handles relatively low speed I/O such as USB and SATA ports and connects to the CPU with a PCIe connection. In these systems all PCIe connections are routed directly to the CPU. The UMI interface previously used by AMD for communicating with the FCH is replaced with a PCIe connection. Technically the processor can operate without

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616-445: The remaining northbridge and southbridge functions into a single chip. Intel's version of this is the " Platform Controller Hub " (PCH) while AMD's version was called Fusion Controller Hub (FCH). The PCH is still called a chipset. This is an enhanced southbridge for the remaining peripherals—as traditional northbridge duties, such as memory controller, expansion bus (PCIe) interface and even on-board video controller, are integrated into

644-421: 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. As of 2021 , manufacturers of chipsets for x86 motherboards include AMD , Intel , VIA Technologies and Zhaoxin . In

672-506: The switch to PowerPC , Apple used various ASIC suppliers for their chipsets such as VLSI technology, Texas Instruments , LSI Logic or Lucent Technologies (later known as Agere Systems ). When Apple switched to Intel they used traditional PC chipsets. In the 1980s, Chips and Technologies pioneered the manufacturing of chipsets for PC-compatible computers. Computer systems produced since then often share commonly used chipsets, even across widely disparate computing specialties. For example,

700-594: The term "chipset" is used to describe a system on chip (SoC) used in a mobile phone. 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

728-477: Was benchmarked to be slightly slower than a 3rd generation Intel i5 quad-core processor (originally released in 2012–2013) using Cinebench . Gaming performance was noted to be poor, whilst the machine itself was noted to be expensive for its performance by 2020 standards. Tom's Hardware also reviewed the U6780A and reported poor gaming performance in 2020. The aim for the ZX-F series is for performance parity with

756-561: Was dropped around 2018 in favour of the KX ("KaiXian") designation for desktop processors and the KH ("KaisHeng") designation for server processors. The successor to the ZX-D, the KX-6000 system on a chip (also called ZX-E), was demonstrated to the press in September 2018. The architecture, an evolution of the ZX-D architecture, was called " Lujiazui ". The KX-6000 was formally launched in 2019. In June 2019

784-617: Was noted to have roughly the performance of the Intel Silvermont (Avoton) processors (which were launched in 2013). The ZX-E / KX-6000 is reported to have a 50% performance increase over the KX-5000, and comparable performance to a 7th generation Intel i5 core processor from 2016 (namely the Core i5-7400). The 8-core ZX-E U6780A was reviewed by Linus Tech Tips in August 2020. The review processor

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