Terminology Question -"Peripheral Chips" vs. "

[gmpphillips]

Does anyone have a good definition of the difference between a
"Peripheral chip" and a "Support Chip"?

When I think of peripheral chips, I think of chips used to interface with
peripherals (printers, terminals, keyboards, floppy drives, etc).

When I think of support chips, I think of chips like clock drivers,
latches, RAM controllers, BUS drivers, etc.

However, there are some chips that are a little more difficult for me to categorize.

For example, the Intel 4265 data sheet says it could be used to interface 4040 systems to standard RAM or "a variety of user peripheral devices".

If used to interface to standard RAM I would say it was a support chip.

If used to interface to "a variety of user peripheral devices" I would say it was a peripheral chip.

Perhaps the 4265 could be either a support chip or peripheral chip depnding on how it was used?

Suggestions???

[chipcollector]

[gshv]

Sometimes these terms are used to describe all chips designed to run with specific microprocessor. For instance, Texas Instruments 9900 manual includes everything including RAM and peripheral chips into "support chips". Motorola Master selection guide puts everything into "Peripheral chips" including RAM and ROM chips, MMU, etc.