PC Chip Sets

Numerous chips on a motherboard support a computer’s hardware and software. Groups of chips are called chip sets. A chip set provides communication between specific computer subsystems. Two major chip sets are commonly referred to as the northbridge and southbridge.

The northbridge is typically found near the CPU socket and handles communication between the CPU, RAM, video cards, and the southbridge.

Dealing with “slower” motherboard capacities, the southbridge is usually found at the bottom of the motherboard and handles communication between network cards, CPU, memory, USB controllers, sound, and Ethernet.