This is part of a chipset in a PC that controls communications between the ISA bus, IDE controller, BIOS, USB, power control, and PS/2 ports. See also northbridge. You must pair a northbridge and southbridge chip to create a full chipset.
Refers to the Peripheral Bus Controller component of a Pentium chipset, responsible for implementing a PCI-to-ISA bridge function and for managing the ISA bus and all the ports. See also Northbridge.
a chipset that manages the basic forms of input/output (I/O) such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), serial, audio, integrated drive electronics (IDE), and PCI bus in a computer-based system
the southbridge controlls the slower aspects of the motherboard. It is not connected to the CPU like the Northbridge is. Rather the Northbridge connects CPU and Southbridge.
The Southbridge, also known as the I/O Controller Hub (ICH), is a chip that implements the "slower" capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. The southbridge can usually be distinguished from the northbridge by not being directly connected to the CPU. Rather, the northbridge ties the southbridge to the CPU.