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Difference Between Northbridge and Southbridge in Motherboard Architecture

North-bridge and South-bridge

The motherboard (also known as the mainboard, main circuit board, or Mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) of most standard computers and other expandable systems. It allows communication between many critical electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory and provides links to other terminals. Unlike a background, the motherboard usually contains many subsystems, such as a central processor, input/ output of the chipset, memory controllers, interface connectors, and other integrated components for general use. The motherboard is a PCB with special expansion capabilities.

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North Bridge South Bridge
Northbridge is a chip in the core logic chipset architecture on the north side of the PC motherboard. Southbridge is a basic logic chipset architecture chip located on the right side of the PC motherboard.
Northbridge is located on the north side of the motherboard. Southbridge is located on the south side of the motherboard.
Northbridge connects directly to the CPU. Southbridge connects to the CPU via the Northbridge.
Northbridge connects to CPU, RAM,AGP, PCI Express slots, and Southbridge. Southbridge connects to PCI bus slots,BIOS, SATA and DE connectors, USB ports, and Northbridge.
The Northbridge is running faster. The Southbridge is running at low speeds.
Northbridge is a chip in a motherboard chipset that connects directly to the CPU. Southbridge is a chip on a motherboard chipset that is not directly connected to the CPU.
In connection with the Northbridge fast components. Southbridge joins the slower components.
The Northbridge, also known as the PAC (PCI/AGP Controller) and, is an integrated circuit in charge of facilitating communication between the CPU interface, AGP, and memory. The northbridge is immediately connected to these parts, in contrast to the southbridge. For the southbridge chip to interface with the CPU, RAM, and graphics controller, it serves as a "bridge." (There are a few chipsets that support two different types of RAM; typically, they become accessible when a new standard is adopted. For instance, the 2002 Nvidia nForce2 chipset's northbridge could only support Socket A processors and DDR SDRAM.)

North of the PCI bus, the northbridge is currently a single chip, but early computers might have had up to three different chips.

Northbridge Attaches the CPU to

  • RAM
  • Built-in graphic
  • PCI Express (PCIe)
Functions of the northbridge chip are being transferred to other CPU components, including the southbridge, as makers search for new methods to boost performance and cut costs. The memory controller was moved from the northbridge to the CPU die starting with the AMD64 AMD and Intel Nehalem processors. Later, all northbridge tasks were transferred to the CPU by the Intel "Sandy Bridge" and AMD APU CPUs.