what is intel chipset device software?  

Dynentan said:

Can someone please explain what this is?

(Taken from Release Notes and ReadMe.txt)

The Intel Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. An INF is a text file that provides the operating system with information about a piece of hardware on the system. In the case of the current Intel Chipset Device Software, that information is primarily the product name for the piece of hardware. This allows the operating system to show the correct name for that piece of hardware in Device Manager.

also:

The Intel(R) Chipset Device Software installs Windows* INF files to the target system. These files outline to the operating system how to configure the Intel(R) chipset components in order to ensure that the following feature functions properly: - Identification of Intel(R) Chipset Components in the Device Manager - Modern Standby requires that 0 devices report problems (no yellow bangs in Device Manager)

It's quite clear that it does enumerate all the devices (motherboard mainly) of your running computer engine.

Dynentan said:

well that's not really true, i didnt have it installed and everything was working

Was working? Since Intel Matrix Storage Manager better have it installed otherwise some good functionality may not work as expected. Many things are optional but for the best performances optimized computer it's always a plus.

what programs and functionality are you talking about? could you be a bit more specific?

I have a set of 19 Applications that came with my current motherboard all are nicely packaged as applets to do all sorts of things,. do I use them, no, not often, but there are there if I ever need them, so I leave them available for the time that I Do need them

The Chipset software itself is all there doing it's job keeping the motherboard working efficiently, and like a iceberg 90% of it never visible. True you may not need any specific app or driver now as you "never Use that function" however how do you know that a number of years down the line when you are having an issue that stops you loading any new applets the very one that you would "never Use" is the one you need.

I always recommend that users install all the chipset drivers - they are normally a very small overhead disk space wise and rarely use any significant memory or clock cycles, so having them there just in case make sense.

I have in the past worked on critical systems for control & data acquisition in industry, these systems needed every possible processor and memory bits available to do their job, a lot of services were not needed and removed chip drivers were not