Few questions

textbook · 05-08-2008, 02:08 PM

Northbridge/southbridge? I thought they were parts of a town? What do those words mean, couldnt find it in my computer dictionary?

Those endless round upside down looking battery things what are they?

textbook · 05-08-2008, 02:35 PM

battery, cache RAM, keyboard connector? Is it an AT, Baby AT, or ATX format?

Anyone know these answers from the photo?

StrangleHold · 05-08-2008, 02:57 PM

Looks like a ATX board. The North/Southbridge control the functions of the motherboard
Chips in the North and South

Figure 2 shows the top-level system architecture for a modern desktop PC, and almost every motherboard follows this convention. The system architecture used to look much more complicated, but integration has reduced a chipset to just 2 main components--the North Bridge (NB) and the South Bridge (SB). The term "Bridge" comes from a reference to a device that connects multiple busses together. The North/South nomenclature referred to whether a device lived above (North) or below (South) of the PCI bus on a block diagram. In the case of the North Bridge, the chip connects the front side bus [FSB] of the CPU to the DRAM bus, the AGP graphics bus, and the South Bridge. To a system designer, all the fast stuff lives in the North Bridge. The South Bridge is intended as the place to integrate all the (slower) peripherals like IDE, ISA, USB, etc.
http://www.gen-x-pc.com/mobo2.htm

The battery is to keep the setting in the bios/cmos when the power is killed.

Cache, depends where it is. Harddrives/CPU/CD-DVD drives all have cache. Its just a small amount of memory that the device can access faster.

Keyboard connector? Its the connector on the keyboard. Can be PS/2 or USB

Those upside down looking battery things are called Capacitors

textbook · 05-09-2008, 04:04 AM

So the northbridge/southbridge are both in that green little square shaped thing in the midle of the motherboard. what are buses?

Vizy93 · 05-09-2008, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by textbook

So the northbridge/southbridge are both in that green little square shaped thing in the midle of the motherboard. what are buses?

IDK if buses are actually hardware, but they are the little wires that run all over the mobo ( i think).

StrangleHold · 05-09-2008, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by textbook

So the northbridge/southbridge are both in that green little square shaped thing in the midle of the motherboard. what are buses?

Some are and some are not. On yours I think its just the Northbridge, the Southbridge is the black square chip below your AGP card to the right alittle. Theres a few buses depending on the system-FSB/ISA/PCI/AGP/PCIe/Hypertransport

05-08-2008, 02:08 PM	#11 (permalink)
textbook Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 201	Northbridge/southbridge? I thought they were parts of a town? What do those words mean, couldnt find it in my computer dictionary? Those endless round upside down looking battery things what are they? Last edited by textbook; 05-08-2008 at 02:18 PM.

05-08-2008, 02:57 PM	#13 (permalink)
StrangleHold Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: In a realm of unknown Wonders Posts: 7,088	Looks like a ATX board. The North/Southbridge control the functions of the motherboard Chips in the North and South Figure 2 shows the top-level system architecture for a modern desktop PC, and almost every motherboard follows this convention. The system architecture used to look much more complicated, but integration has reduced a chipset to just 2 main components--the North Bridge (NB) and the South Bridge (SB). The term "Bridge" comes from a reference to a device that connects multiple busses together. The North/South nomenclature referred to whether a device lived above (North) or below (South) of the PCI bus on a block diagram. In the case of the North Bridge, the chip connects the front side bus [FSB] of the CPU to the DRAM bus, the AGP graphics bus, and the South Bridge. To a system designer, all the fast stuff lives in the North Bridge. The South Bridge is intended as the place to integrate all the (slower) peripherals like IDE, ISA, USB, etc. http://www.gen-x-pc.com/mobo2.htm The battery is to keep the setting in the bios/cmos when the power is killed. Cache, depends where it is. Harddrives/CPU/CD-DVD drives all have cache. Its just a small amount of memory that the device can access faster. Keyboard connector? Its the connector on the keyboard. Can be PS/2 or USB Those upside down looking battery things are called Capacitors __________________ NZXT Apollo Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Gigabyte GA MA770 DS3 G Skill DDR2 800 4gb PNY XLR8 8800GT Spinpoint F1 500gb. Too bad stupidity isn't painful. Last edited by StrangleHold; 05-08-2008 at 03:04 PM.

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05-08-2008, 02:35 PM	#12 (permalink)
textbook Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 201	battery, cache RAM, keyboard connector? Is it an AT, Baby AT, or ATX format? Anyone know these answers from the photo?

05-09-2008, 04:04 AM	#14 (permalink)
textbook Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 201	So the northbridge/southbridge are both in that green little square shaped thing in the midle of the motherboard. what are buses?