A chipset control communication between processor and external devices

SOUTHBRIDGE

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SouthbridgeThe Southbridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a personal computer (PC) motherboard, the other being the Northbridge. The Southbridge typically

implements the slower capabilities of the motherboard in a Northbridge/Southbridge chipset computer architecture.

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The name is derived from representing the architecture in the fashion of a map and was first described as such with the introduction of the PCI Local Bus Architecture in 1991.

the Southbridge extends to the south of the PCI bus backbone and bridges to less performance-critical I/O capabilities such as the disk interface, audio, etc

Etymology

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Functionality

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PCI bus. The PCI bus support includes the traditional PCI specification, but may also include support for PCI-X and PCI Express.

 Peripheral Component Interconnect

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ISA bus or LPC bridge. ISA support remains an integrated part of the modern Southbridge, though ISA slots are no longer provided on more recent motherboards.

Industry Standard Architecture

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SPI bus. The SPI bus is a simple serial bus mostly used for firmware (e.g., HDD) flash storage access.

Serial Peripheral Interface Bus

Southbridge

Hard disk

Rom

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SMBus. The SM Bus is used to communicate with other devices on the motherboard (e.g., system temperature sensors, fan controllers, SPDs).

System Management Bus

SM BUSMASTER

SM BUS SLAVE

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DMA controller. The DMA controller allows ISA or LPC devices direct access to main memory without needing help from the CPU

Direct memory access

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Interrupt controllers such as 8259A and/or I/O APIC. The interrupt controller provides a mechanism for attached devices to get attention from the CPU.

Programmable Interrupt Controller

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Mass storage controllers such as PATA and/or SATA. This typically allows direct attachment of system hard drives.

Mass storage

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A real-time clock (RTC) is a computer clock (most often in the form of an integrated circuit) that keeps track of the current time.

Real-time clock

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Nonvolatile BIOS memory refers to a small memory on PC motherboards that is used to store BIOS settings. It is traditionally called CMOS.

Nonvolatile BIOS memory

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Audio components integrated into chipsets consist of two component classes: an AC'97 digital controller (DC97), which is built into the Southbridge of the chipset, and AC'97 audio and modem codec's, which are the analog components of the architecture.

Audio Codec '97

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Optionally, a Southbridge also includes support for Ethernet, RAID, USB, audio codec, and FireWire. Where support is provided for non-USB keyboard, mouse, and serial ports, a machine normally does so through a device referred to as a Super I/O; still more rarely, a Southbridge may directly support the keyboard, mouse, and serial ports.

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