Northbridge (computing)

A typical north/southbridge layout

A typical north/southbridge layout

A northbridge or host bridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset architecture on
a PC motherboard, the other being the southbridge. Unlike the southbridge, northbridge is
connected directly to the CPU via the front-side bus (FSB) and is thus responsible for tasks
that require the highest performance. The northbridge is usually paired with a southbridge, also
known as I/O controller hub.[1] In systems where they are included, these two chips manage
communications between the CPU and other parts of the motherboard, and constitute the core
logic chipset of the PC motherboard.[2]
On older Intel based PCs, the northbridge was also named external memory controller
hub (MCH) or graphics and memory controller hub (GMCH) if equipped with integrated
graphics. Increasingly these functions became integrated into the CPU chip itself,[3]beginning
with memory and graphics controllers. For Intel Sandy Bridge and AMD Accelerated
Processing Unitprocessors introduced in 2011, all of the functions of the northbridge reside on
the CPU,[4] while AMD FX CPUs still require external northbridge and southbridge chips.
Separating the different functions into the CPU, northbridge, and southbridge chips was due to
the difficulty of integrating all components onto a single chip.[5] In some instances, the
northbridge and southbridge functions have been combined onto one diewhen design
complexity and fabrication processes permitted it; for example, the Nvidia GeForce 320M in the
2010 MacBook Air is a northbridge/southbridge/GPU combo chip.[6]
As CPU speeds increased over time, a bottleneckeventually emerged between the processor
and the motherboard, due to limitations caused by data transmission between the CPU and its
support chipset.[7]Accordingly, starting with the AMD Athlon64 series CPUs (based on
the Opteron), a new architecture was used where some functions of the north- and southbridge
chips were moved to the CPU. Modern Intel Core processors have the northbridge integrated
on the CPU die, where it is known as the uncore or system agent.