Specifications

Computer Architecture and Maintenance (G-Scheme-2014)

The southbridge is slower than

the northbridge, and information

from the CPU has to go through

the northbridge before reaching

the southbridge. Other busses

connect the southbridge to the

PCI bus, the USB ports and the

IDE or SATA hard disk

connections.

Chipset selection and CPU

selection go hand in hand,

because manufacturers optimize

chipsets to work with specific

CPUs. The chipset is an integrated

part of the motherboard, so it

cannot be removed or upgraded.

This means that not only must the

motherboard's socket fit the CPU,

the motherboard's chipset must

work optimally with the CPU.

Purpose of Chipset

A bus is simply a circuit that connects one part of the motherboard to another. The

more data a bus can handle at one time, the faster it allows information to travel. The

speed of the bus, measured in megahertz (MHz), refers to how much data can move

across the bus simultaneously.

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.

Here are some of the other busses found on a motherboard:

• The back side bus connects the CPU with the level 2 (L2) cache, also known as

secondary or external cache. The processor determines the speed of the back side

bus.

• The memory bus connects the northbridge to the memory.

Prepared By – Prof. Manoj.kavedia (9860174297 – 9324258878 ) (www.kavediasir.yolasite.com)