What is the south and north bridge of the computer. North and south bridge on the motherboard
Laptops and personal computers are very complex devices. There are so many microchips in them that an unprepared user could not even dream of. Often all these "pieces of iron" tend to fail. In service centers, they get off with the faceless wording "the north bridge of the motherboard burned down." And what kind of bridge is this and where did it come from on this very board - God knows. Severe IT people are not going to explain the device of a computer to mere mortals. But you need to know this, since the problem is very serious and occurs quite often. That's what we'll talk about now.
What is northbridge
The northbridge is a controller on the motherboard, which is responsible for the performance of some of its very important nodes. Often this bridge is paired with an integrated graphics core (especially in laptops). This is not surprising, because the bridge is responsible for the operation of the video adapter, the central processor, RAM and other critical computer components. It is by his grace that the entire multicomponent system works. It is named so because of its location. But not because of the temperature.
A paradox, but much "colder" than the northern one. This is due to the fact that the northbridge is in close proximity to the processor and video card. This affects its temperature in the most negative way. Therefore, it is supplied with an additional cooler or cooling radiator. In addition, this bridge is usually installed in the upper part of the body. And hot air, as you know, rises. Hence the additional load on this element. Is it worth mentioning that it is this component of the motherboard that burns out first?
Signs of failure
It's pretty simple. Since the north bridge of a laptop or PC is responsible for the operation of the most important components, it is quite easy to diagnose a breakdown. It is enough to turn on the computer. The first sign will be that there will be no image on the screen. There may also be no access to the hard disk. RAM won't load either. As a result, you will hear a characteristic sound signal in the form of a nasty squeak.
Also, a cyclic restart of the computer can be a symptom. It all depends on the degree of damage to the component. Another common symptom may be that the computer turns on from the fifth or even the tenth time. If these symptoms occur, then your northbridge on your laptop or PC is seriously damaged. And you should not delay this, because you can lose all other computer components that are still working properly.
Causes of failure
There are a great many of them. Therefore, it is impossible to immediately understand what happened. The most common reason is overheating. The north bridge simply burns out due to exceeding the permissible temperature. Such a thing takes place when there is insufficient cooling of the component. Physical damage on impact is also possible. Moreover, the motherboard itself is not necessary to "pound". The controller is very fragile. He just needs a little push. The last reason is a factory marriage. It is extremely rare. Manufacturers usually warn users that there is a defective chip in the motherboard. When he flies - a matter of time.
The northbridge and southbridge are pretty finicky components. They only need a slight shake, an insignificant overheating or a power surge - and that's it, they are dead. By the way, the ingress of liquid into the computer is also a common cause of failure. It is enough for the smallest drop to get on the contact, as a short circuit immediately occurs, and the controller burns out. And without this control element, PC operation is impossible.
Repair
You can’t fix the failed north bridge with your own hands. This is a complex device that is produced by specialized robots. Such accuracy is not available to a person. Therefore, in the service centers, no one will poke around in the controller. There is only one way out - to replace the bridge. The quality of the replacement depends on the individual master. It is not recommended to give your laptops and PCs into the hands of "craftsmen", because these comrades can kill everything there. It is better to use the services of professionals.
If you have a motherboard with a knowingly faulty controller (which was confirmed by the manufacturer), then it’s better not to wait for X hour at all. The North Bridge will be replaced under warranty for free at the manufacturer’s authorized service center. But it is better not to delay this, because the consequences can be very sad.
Prevention
In order to avoid the failure of this component of the motherboard, you just need to follow not very complicated operating rules. First, you need to regularly clean the case from dust and dirt. Particular attention should be paid to coolers and other components of the cooling system. For if you let everything take its course, then the north bridge will simply burn out, unable to withstand the high temperature. You should also check the cooling system for performance at all times. If any cooler fails, it should be replaced immediately.
Secondly, never expose your laptop or PC to physical impact. This is also detrimental to this component. Third, keep pets away from laptops and PCs. Their hair clogs the cooling system very quickly. As a result - overheating and failure of the bridge. Fourth, never drink anything near a laptop or PC. One drop of liquid leaked onto the motherboard is enough for the northbridge to "play in the box".
Conclusion
Now you know what the north bridge of a computer motherboard is, what it serves for and what it is afraid of. Following simple rules for the safe operation of your computer will help to avoid the failure of this finicky component. Diagnosing a malfunction of this component of the motherboard is also very simple. If the PC does not start, reboots and there is no image, then with a high degree of probability we can say that the north bridge has died. It cannot be repaired, only replaced. Still, it's easier to replace it than the entire motherboard. Treat your computer with care, and you will never have such problems.
So, first a little theory.
A common laptop failure is a burnt south bridge. Our clients who rent laptops for repair ask the question, what is the south bridge responsible for in a laptop? To answer that this is the south bridge and clarify this popular question, we decided to write a small comment about this popular microcircuit.
south bridge- translated from English (Southbridge) - no less important in importance is the controller chip that provides the work of a large number of functionality of a modern laptop or PC. If your IDE, SATA, USB, LAN, BIOS, APM and ACPI power supply systems, LPC Bridge bus, Embeded Audio, SM bus (responsible for the rotation speed of coolers), DMA controller, IRQ controller, stop working for you, you can be sure that you need to change (solder) the south bridge. This microcircuit, although not as productive as the north bridge, also performs a number of vital functions for a laptop. The south bridge sends data to the north bridge, which in turn sends them to the processor for processing. In older laptop models, this chip also handled data processing on the PCI, PCIe, and ISA buses. It can be rephrased from technical to simple colloquial language that the southbridge is at the forefront with the user and external technical stimuli, such as installing a faulty USB flash drive in a laptop, in the first place, will put the southbridge at risk, which because of this can easily burn out. Short circuits of any of the above ports lead to an increase in the temperature of this microcircuit, which often does not have additional cooling, which leads to overheating.
When discussing motherboards, terms such as northbridge or southbridge are often used. Such terminology often confuses inexperienced users, they cannot figure out what the north and south bridges are, where they are located and what they are responsible for. In addition, users often confuse the northbridge with the southbridge and cannot remember their location on the motherboard. If you are also not sure about this issue, then we suggest that you read our article.
A bridge is a chip that is soldered onto the motherboard and is part of the chipset. Traditionally, a chipset consists of two chips, which are called the northbridge and southbridge.
These chips are called bridges because they perform a connecting function between the computer's central processing unit and other components. As for the names "north" and "south", these names indicate the location of these chips on the motherboard. By analogy with the poles on the globe, the north bridge is closer to the top, and the south bridge is closer to the bottom of the board.
It should be noted that two bridges are no longer used on modern motherboards. Instead of the northbridge and southbridge, only the southbridge is now used, since all the functions of the northbridge have been integrated into the processor.
Where is the north and south bridge
As already mentioned, the north bridge (in photo No. 1) is a chip that is located at the top of the motherboard, immediately below. This arrangement is due to the fact that the northbridge is connected directly to the central processing unit of the computer. Usually, a massive heatsink or even a heatsink with a fan is located on the northbridge, since this bridge heats up much more than the southbridge.
North (1) and south bridge (2) on the motherboard.
The Southbridge (pictured #2) is the chip at the bottom of the motherboard. Usually, a smaller heatsink is located on it; on some motherboards, the southbridge is not equipped with a heatsink at all. In modern motherboards, the chipset can only consist of one southbridge.
What is the north and south bridge responsible for?
In order to understand what the north and south bridge is responsible for, just look at the block diagram of a typical computer.
At the top of the block diagram you see the CPU - this is the central processing unit. It is bus connected to the northbridge, which in turn is connected to the graphics adapter (or AGP) slot, to the memory bus, and to the southbridge. Thus, the northbridge is responsible for communicating the CPU with the graphics adapter, memory, and the southbridge. Also, the operating parameters of the system bus, RAM and video adapter depend on the north bridge.
Block diagram of a typical computer.
The south bridge is responsible for interaction with external devices and other functions of the motherboard. It includes PCI Express, PCI, PATA, RAID, USB, Ethernet, Firewire, etc. controllers. The southbridge is also responsible for power management, non-volatile BIOS memory, and interrupts. The interaction of the south bridge with the processor occurs through the north bridge.
Since the south bridge directly works with external devices that are connected to the computer, the probability of its failure is much higher than the probability of the north bridge failure. Often the reason for the premature death of the south bridge is a short circuit of the USB connector or the connection of a faulty drive. The northern part of the chipset can also fail, but, for it, the problem is more typical.
It should be noted that in the event of a bridge failure, it is not necessary to throw away the entire motherboard. In many cases, the problem can be solved by replacing the chip with a new one or a used one from a similar board. But, such a procedure is usually done on only expensive motherboards, since it is not economically feasible on budget models.
Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Something I have not said anything about computer hardware for a long time. Today we will talk about the chipset. A chipset (from the English Chipset) is a set of chips that exists in any computer, whether it is a laptop or a stationary PC, and with the help of which all devices currently connected to the motherboard interact. The chipset, one might say, is the central connecting node on the .
The chipset, in turn, consists of two main components - north and south bridges. The northbridge includes a RAM controller, video processor, DMI and FSB bus controllers. The south bridge is responsible for the "input-output" ports - that is, for the operation of all kinds of peripheral devices (printer, scanner, flash drives, external hard drives, etc.), as well as for the operation of the basic "input-output" system (BIOS ).
The northbridge determines the type of processor that will be installed in the processor socket on the motherboard, determines its frequency, number of cores and other parameters. It cannot be that a modern processor model will be installed in the socket, and the chipset will be outdated and will not be able to support this processor, there must be a clear match for this parameter.
By the way, the words "northern" and "southern" in the names of the bridges are there for a reason, they have an important function - they indicate the location of these bridges relative to the upper and lower edges of the board (from above, as it were, north, from below, south). In the image above, you can see that the north bridge is located exactly between the RAM and video card slots (blue connector), and the south bridge, in turn, is as close as possible to the ports for connecting external devices.
The fact is that the closer the chipset chips are to other components of the motherboard, the faster the interaction between them is carried out, roughly speaking, the speed of data exchange increases with decreasing distance. It turns out that there are no trifles here, everything makes sense. In addition, this layout allows you to create motherboards of the smallest sizes, including for laptops and netbooks.
You may have noticed that on modern motherboards northbridge may be missing as such. Now more and more often one can come across a situation in which the northbridge is structurally moved to the central processor, which significantly saves space on the motherboard, and just as significantly complicates the design of this board itself, which ultimately cannot but affect its cost, and not for the better.
So, as mentioned earlier, the motherboard chipset consists of two parts, the north bridge and the south bridge. Between themselves, they exchange data via the DMI (Direct Media Interface) bus, which is clearly visible in the diagram (Figure 2 from the beginning of the article). The FSB (Front-Side Bus) bus is responsible for connecting the processor to the north bridge, the higher its operating frequency, the faster the computer will work.
By the way, Intel has developed a new QPI bus, which has come to replace the outdated FSB. Intel developed it in response to AMD's new HT (Hiper Transport) bus. The bandwidth of the QPI bus (25.6 GB / s) has increased compared to the outdated FSB (8 GB / s). Previously, AMD had LDT (Like Data Transport) instead of the HT bus.
Please note that the chipset is equipped with cooling radiators, because during operation it can get very hot, especially under peak load. Usually, the more expensive the motherboard, the more attention is paid to all cooling elements (more radiators, larger radiators themselves and better metal from which they are made).
Another interesting point is that the chipset and, for which the motherboard is designed, are manufactured by the same company. In other words, if your processor, for example, is from AMD, then the chipset of the motherboard was made by the same company. In fact, there are not two of these companies, as is commonly believed (Intel and AMD), but as many as six, or even more. It turns out that ATI and Nvidia make not only excellent chipsets, but also chipsets.
There are two more manufacturers that have generally bypassed fame and recognition, these are SIS and VIA, as far as I know, these two companies are only engaged in the production of chipsets and their chipsets are extremely rare on sale. And yes, there are two much less well-known chipset manufacturers, to be honest, I don’t remember what they are called, but they mainly produce chipsets for server motherboards.
So, I propose to summarize all of the above:
- The chipset affects everything that depends on it, namely, the type of RAM, the type of processor, the versions of USB, SATA and other ports, which BIOS will be on the motherboard, etc. Therefore, the question "What is the most important component in the motherboard ?", you can safely answer - "Chipset" and no one can reproach you for the incorrectness of the answer.
- Keep in mind that the more expensive the motherboard, the cooler the chipset will be in it. It also depends on the chipset what level the built-in sound and network cards will be. On more expensive models of boards, the sound chip plays music much better ("cleaner", bass is deeper and richer), in comparison with budget models.
- There is everything two types of chipsets: in the first case, it is presented as a south and north bridge, in the second case, only the south bridge can be observed on the motherboard, and the north bridge is hidden in the processor (a more modern version).
If you don't know what chipset is on your motherboard, and you don't have paper documentation for it at hand, you can use the free program "CPU-Z". In it, on the "Mainboard" tab in the "Chipset" column, the manufacturer and model of your chipset will be displayed. By the way, if it seems to you that your chipset is already outdated and you suddenly want to change it, then with all your desire you will not be able to do this, because these chips are "tightly" soldered into the motherboard. I hope I was able to explain to you what is a chipset. Thank you.
