Computer Hardware Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

The northbridge is traditionally one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a PC motherboard, the other being the Southbridge. Rarely, these two chips have been combined onto one die when design complexity and fabrication processes permit it. In general, however, core logic chipsets are divided into these two main parts. In Northbridge/Southbridge chipset architecture designs, the Northbridge is the chip or chips that connect a CPU to memory, the PCI bus, Level 2 cache and AGP activities. The Northbridge chips communicate with the CPU through the FSB.

Related Terms

Northbridge