southbridge northbridge?

[Dystopia]

Ok, I have always know that the north bridge south bridge need to be good chipsets, i pretty much know what they are, but what do they DO?

Thanks

 

[StrangleHold]

The Northbridge controls data flow from the CPU. Look at it like a intersection where all data is passed through/directed to. AMD processors with its onboard memory controller and Hypertransport lanes has stripped down alot of the N/B fuctions and its bypassed.

The Southbridge controls the Floppy/IDE controllers/USB/serial/PCI/LAN and so on.

 

[Dystopia]

So basically, the Northbridge supports the CPU, while the Southbridge controls all the other things. Thanks!!

 

[StrangleHold]

Yea basically, The S/B is the I/O controller hub, runs all the slower devices. The N/B and S/B are connected through the PCI bus or on AMD systems through a Hypertransport lane.