In Northbridge/Southbridge
chipset architecture designs, the
Southbridge is the chip that controls all of the computers
I/O functions, such as
USB, audio, serial, the system
BIOS, the
ISA bus, the
interrupt controller and the
IDE channels. In other words, all of the functions of a processor except
memory,
PCI and
AGP.
The Southbridge chip is one of two chips that control the functions of the chipset. The other is the Northbridge. The Northbridge can consist of more than one discrete chips while the Southbridge is typically only one discrete chip that rests on the Northbridge’s PCI bus.
