The northbridge links the CPU to very high-speed devices, especially RAM and graphics controllers, and the southbridge connects to lower-speed peripheral buses (such as PCI or ISA). In many modern chipsets, the southbridge contains some on-chip integrated peripherals, such as Ethernet, USB, and audio devices.
CMOS stands for “Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.” The CMOS battery powers the BIOS firmware in your laptop [2]. BIOS needs to remain operational even when your computer isn't plugged into a power source. That's where the battery comes in.
List of Intel chipsets
- 5.1 Pentium 4/Pentium D/Pentium EE chipsets.
- 5.2 Pentium M/Celeron M mobile chipsets.
- 5.3 Core/Core 2 mobile chipsets.
- 5.4 Core 2 chipsets.
- 5.5 Core 2 mobile chipsets.
- 5.6 Southbridge 9xx and 3/4 Series chipsets.
Parts Of A Motherboard
- BIOS And CMOS. BIOS or Basic Input Output System is where all the information and settings for the motherboard are stored.
- Input/Output Ports.
- IDE And SATA Connector (Storage Device Connectors)
- Power Connectors.
- Front I/O Connectors.
- CPU Socket.
- Expansion Card Slots.
- RAM (Memory) Slots.
A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, system board, baseboard, planar board, logic board, and mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems.
Basic Input/Output System
Short for Basic Input/Output System, the BIOS (pronounced bye-oss) is a ROM chip found on motherboards that allows you to access and set up your computer system at the most basic level.
Bus speed usually refers to the speed of the front side bus (FSB), which connects the CPU to the northbridge. FSB speeds can range from 66 MHz to over 800 MHz. Since the CPU reaches the memory controller though the northbridge, FSB speed can dramatically affect a computer's performance.
Discussion Forum
| Que. | What determines the type of case a motherboard needs and provides maximum expansion slot limit? |
|---|
| b. | Component |
| c. | Expansion slot |
| d. | Form factor |
| Answer:Form factor |
Explanation: The Northbridge chipset generally controls access to the RAM, video card, and the speeds at which the CPU can communicate with them.
In computing, Direct Media Interface (DMI) is Intel's proprietary link between the northbridge and southbridge on a computer motherboard. It was first used between the 9xx chipsets and the ICH6, released in 2004.
Northbridge is an Intel chipset that communicates with the computer processor and controls interaction with memory, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, Level 2 cache, and all Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) activities. Northbridge communicates with the processor using the frontside bus (FSB).
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. Typical PCI cards used in PCs include: network cards, sound cards, modems, extra ports such as USB or serial, TV tuner cards and hard disk drive host adapters.
The northbridge is the heatsink in the middle of your motherboard. The other smaller heastink below it is the southbridge. In this imiage you can see where each is located.
Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI, is the most common way to attach add-on controller cards and other devices to a computer motherboard. This type of connector originated in the early 1990s, and is still in use today. Presently, there are three main PCI motherboard connectors (usually referred to as "slots".)
The 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.
