PC Hardware A Beginner’s Guide

Chapter 5: Chipsets and Controllers^101

Non-Intel Chipsets

Besides Intel, ALi (Acer Labs), Via Technologies, and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS)

manufacture Pentium-class chipsets.

ALi (Acer Laboratories, Inc.)

Acer Laboratories is a small part of Acer (the PC manufacturer) that manufacturers

chipsets for the Acer AcerOpen motherboards. The Aladdin III and Aladdin IV chipsets

are comparable to the Intel 430VX and 430TX chipsets. The Aladdin V, also known as the

M1541 chipset, supports higher CPU bus frequency (up to 100MHz), internal tag bits and

tag RAM, high performance RAM controller, 64-bit ECC/parity memory bus interface,

an AGP interface, and it includes device controllers for IDE, USB, and PS/2, as well as a

Super I/O controller.

SiS

SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation) manufactures chipsets that combine the

functionsofthenorthbridgeandsouthbridgeintoasinglechip.SiSchipsetsareavailable

Figure 5-8. The Intel 810e chipset. Photo courtesy of Intel Corporation