A **controller** is simply a circuit that controls a process. The **chipset** is a combination of controllers placed on the same piece of silicon.
The chipset manages the data flow between the different components that comprise the [motherboard](/Hardware/Motherboard.md): processor, [memory](/Hardware/Memory/RAM_types.md), [harddisk](/Operating_Systems/Disks/What_are_disks.md) and peripherals.
Buses run in and out of the chipset into these key motherboard components. The main chipset is a kind of junction that sits between the memory and CPU through which the [system bus](/Hardware/Bus.md#system-bus) passes.
The chipset is sometimes called the "glue" or "traffic controller" of the motherboard or _an intelligent intersection of buses_.
