The northbridge, also known as a memory controller hub (MCH) or an integrated memory controller (IMC) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use 'northbridge'), is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset A chipset, PC chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product on a PC motherboard, the other being the southbridge The Southbridge, also known as an I/O Controller Hub or a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use 'southbridge'), is a chip that implements the "slower" capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. The southbridge can usually be distinguished from. Separating the chipset into the northbridge and southbridge is common, although there are rare instances where these two chips have been combined onto one die A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated. Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is cut (“diced”) into many pieces, each when design complexity and fabrication processes permit it.
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Overview
The northbridge typically handles communications among the CPU The Central Processing Unit or the processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s . The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed, RAM Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order (i.e., at random). "Random" refers to the idea that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the, and PCI Express PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe (or PCI-E, as it is commonly called), is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP standards. PCIe 2.1 is the latest standard for expansion cards that is available on mainstream personal computers (or AGP The Accelerated Graphics Port is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. Since 2004, AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express. As of mid-2009, PCIe cards dominate the market, but new AGP cards and motherboards) video cards, and the southbridge The Southbridge, also known as an I/O Controller Hub or a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use 'southbridge'), is a chip that implements the "slower" capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. The southbridge can usually be distinguished from.[1][2] Some northbridges also contain integrated video controllers, also known as a Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) in Intel systems. Because different processors and RAM require different signalling, a northbridge will typically work with only one or two classes of CPUs The Central Processing Unit or the processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s . The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed and generally only one type of RAM. There are a few chipsets that support two types of RAM (generally these are available when there is a shift to a new standard). For example, the northbridge from the NVIDIA Nvidia is a multinational corporation which specializes in the development of graphics processing units and chipset technologies for workstations, personal computers, and mobile devices. Based in Santa Clara, California, the company has become a major supplier of integrated circuits (ICs), designing graphics processing units (GPUs) and chipsets nForce2 The nForce2 chipset was released by Nvidia in July 2002 as a refresh to the original nForce product offering. The nForce2 chipset was a platform for motherboards supporting AMD's Socket A CPUs along with DDR SDRAM. There were variations of the chipset including one with and one without an integrated GeForce4 MX graphics processor chipset will only work with Socket A Socket A is the CPU socket used for AMD processors ranging from the Athlon Thunderbird to the Athlon XP/MP 3200+, and AMD budget processors including the Duron and Sempron. Socket A also supports the recent AMD Geode NX embedded processors (derived from the Mobile Athlon XP). The socket is a zero insertion force pin grid array type with 453 pins ( processors combined with DDR SDRAM Double Data Rate synchronous dynamic random access memory is a class of memory integrated circuits used in computers. It achieves nearly twice the bandwidth of the preceding single data rate (SDR) SDRAM by double pumping (transferring data on the rising and falling edges of the clock signal) without increasing the clock frequency, the Intel Intel Corporation is a technology company, and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" i875 chipset will only work with systems using Pentium 4 The Pentium 4 brand refers to Intel's line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units introduced on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had the 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since introduction of P6 microarchitecture of the Pentium Pro CPUs processors or Celeron The Celeron brand has been used by Intel for several distinct ranges of x86 CPUs targeted at budget personal computers. Celeron processors can run all IA-32 computer programs, but their performance is somewhat lower when compared to similar CPUs with higher-priced Intel CPU brands. For example, the Celeron brand will often have less cache memory, processors that have a clock speed greater than 1.3 GHz and utilize DDR SDRAM, and the Intel Intel Corporation is a technology company, and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" i915g chipset only works with the Intel Pentium 4 The Pentium 4 brand refers to Intel's line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units introduced on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had the 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since introduction of P6 microarchitecture of the Pentium Pro CPUs and the Celeron The Celeron brand has been used by Intel for several distinct ranges of x86 CPUs targeted at budget personal computers. Celeron processors can run all IA-32 computer programs, but their performance is somewhat lower when compared to similar CPUs with higher-priced Intel CPU brands. For example, the Celeron brand will often have less cache memory,, but it can use DDR or DDR2 DDR2 SDRAM is a double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory interface. It supersedes the original DDR SDRAM specification and the two are not compatible. In addition to double pumping the data bus as in DDR SDRAM , DDR2 allows higher bus speed and requires lower power by running the internal clock at one quarter the speed of the data memory.
Etymology
The name is derived from drawing the architecture in the fashion of a map. The CPU would be at the top of the map comparable to due north on most general purpose geographical Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.). Four historical traditions in geographical research are the spatial analysis of natural and maps. The CPU would be connected to the chipset A chipset, PC chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product via a fast bridge (the northbridge) located north of other system devices as drawn. The northbridge would then be connected to the rest of the chipset via a slow bridge (the southbridge) located south of other system devices as drawn.
Intel Intel Corporation is a technology company, and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" i815EP northbridgeImportance
The northbridge on a particular system's motherboard is the most prominent factor in dictating the number, speed, and type of CPU(s) and the amount, speed, and type of RAM that can be used. Other factors such as voltage regulation and available number of connectors also play a role. Virtually all consumer-level chipsets support only one processor series, with the maximum amount of RAM Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order (i.e., at random). "Random" refers to the idea that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the varying by processor type and motherboard design. Pentium-era machines often had a limitation of 128 MB, while most Pentium 4 machines have a limit of 4 GB. Since the Pentium Pro The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel introduced in November 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications. While the Pentium and Pentium MMX had 3.1 and 4.5 million transistors, respectively, the, the Intel architecture can accommodate physical addresses larger than 32 bits, typically 36 bits, which gives up to 64 GB of addressing (see PAE), though motherboards that can support that much RAM are rare because of other factors (operating system limitations and expense of RAM).
A northbridge typically will only work with one or two different southbridges. In this respect, it affects some of the other features that a given system can have by limiting which technologies are available on its southbridge partner.
The northbridge hosts its own memory lookup table In computer science, a lookup table is a data structure, usually an array or associative array, often used to replace a runtime computation with a simpler array indexing operation. The savings in terms of processing time can be significant, since retrieving a value from memory is often faster than undergoing an 'expensive' computation or input/ (I/O memory management unit), a mapping of the addresses and layout in main memory. The northbridge handles data transactions for the front side bus In personal computers, the front-side bus is the bus that carries data between the CPU and the northbridge (FSB), the memory bus and the AGP port.
The northbridge will have a different model number, even though they are often paired with the same southbridge to come under the collective name of the chipset.
Recent developments
The memory controller, which handles communication between the CPU and RAM, has been moved onto the processor die A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated. Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is cut (“diced”) into many pieces, each in AMD64 x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces that are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other enhancements. The original specification was created by AMD, processors. Intel Intel Corporation is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. The company is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word has integrated the memory controller onto the processor die with their Nehalem Nehalem is the codename for an Intel processor microarchitecture, successor to the Core microarchitecture. The first processor released with the Nehalem architecture is the desktop Core i7, which was released on November 15, 2008 in Tokyo and November 17, 2008 in the USA. The first computer to use Nehalem-based Xeon processors was the Mac Pro microarchitecture-based i7 processors.
Another example of this kind of change is NVIDIA Nvidia is a multinational corporation which specializes in the development of graphics processing units and chipset technologies for workstations, personal computers, and mobile devices. Based in Santa Clara, California, the company has become a major supplier of integrated circuits (ICs), designing graphics processing units (GPUs) and chipsets's nForce3 chipset for AMD64 x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces that are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other enhancements. The original specification was created by AMD, systems that is a single chip. It combines all of the features of a normal southbridge The Southbridge, also known as an I/O Controller Hub or a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use 'southbridge'), is a chip that implements the "slower" capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. The southbridge can usually be distinguished from with an AGP The Accelerated Graphics Port is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. Since 2004, AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express. As of mid-2009, PCIe cards dominate the market, but new AGP cards and motherboards port and connects directly to the CPU. On nForce4 boards they consider this to be an MCP (Media Communications Processor).
Northbridge and overclocking
The northbridge plays an important part in how far a computer can be overclocked Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, usually practiced by enthusiasts seeking an increase in the performance of their computers. Some purchase low-end computer components which they then overclock to higher clock rates, or overclock high-, as its frequency is used as a baseline for the CPU to establish its own operating frequency. This chip's temperature typically increases as processor speed becomes faster, requiring increased cooling measures.
See also
References
- ^ InformIT: Motherboards & Core-Logic Chipsets: The Deep Stuff > What the North Bridge and South Bridge Do
- ^ George Jones - Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide - Prentice Hall PTR - ISBN 0768663121
Categories: IBM PC compatibles | Motherboard
