1. Different locations
The South bridge chip is located in a position near the IDE interface or SATA interface of its hard disk, which is not covered, and there are words such as VIA or SIS or INTER on the chip, indicating the manufacturer of the South bridge chip, and the chip that is closer to the hard disk data line interface is the South Bridge chip.
The North bridge chip is located in a position near the CPU, which is generally covered with heat sinks, and the chip closer to the CPU is the North Bridge chip.
2. Different functions
Southbridge chips are responsible for communication between I\/O buses, such as PCI bus, USB, LAN, ATA, SATA, audio controllers, keyboard controllers, real-time clock controllers, advanced power management, etc. These technologies are generally relatively stable.
The Northbridge chip is responsible for the contact with the CPU and controls the memory AGP data transmission within the Northbridge, providing support for the type and main frequency of the CPU, the front-end bus frequency of the system, the type and maximum capacity of the memory, AGP slot, ECC error correction, etc. The integrated chipset's Northbridge chip also integrates the display core. The role of the North bridge chip is very obvious, and it plays a decisive role in the computer.
3. Different characteristics
Southbridge chip has the features of dual-chip design, integrated network, high quality audio, video card working bus and so on.
Because the North bridge chip plays this leading role, the heat is also very large, generally need to cover the heat sink, and some also add fan heat dissipation.
4. Different meanings
The Southbridge chip is an important part of the motherboard chipset and is responsible for the communication between the I\/O buses.
The North bridge chip is the most important component of the motherboard chipset that plays a dominant role, responsible for the connection with the CPU and controlling the memory.
There are obvious differences between the south bridge chip and the North bridge chip.
The Southbridge chip is responsible for the I\/O control function of the computer, including communication with peripherals, memory control, SATA\/IDE control, etc. The Northbridge chip is responsible for the connection between the computer processor and the memory, and the control of PCI Express, which is the key to the performance and stability of the computer. Therefore, both the Southbridge chip and the Northbridge chip play an important role, and the difference between the two requires a deep understanding of computer principles and architectures.
The design concept of the South Bridge and the North bridge chip has evolved with the development of computer technology, such as Intel once merged the two into a chipset to improve performance, and now the North and South Bridge chip more integrated other functions, such as integrated graphics and network cards.