Recent Developments
The overall trend in processor design has been to integrate more functions onto the chip which decreases overall motherboard cost and improves performance. The memory controller, which handles communication between the CPU and RAM, were moved onto the processor die by AMD beginning with their AMD64 processors and by Intel with their Nehalem processors. One of the advantages of having the memory controller integrated on the CPU die is to reduce latency from the CPU-to-Memory so the CPU can control the memory directly.
Another example of this kind of change is Nvidia's nForce3 chipset for AMD64 systems that is a single chip. It combines all of the features of a normal southbridge with an AGP port and connects directly to the CPU. On nForce4 boards they consider this to be an MCP (Media Communications Processor).
Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” processors feature full integration of northbridge functions onto the CPU chip, along with processor cores, memory controller and graphics processing unit (GPU). This was a further evolution of the Westmere architecture, which also featured a CPU and GPU in the same package.
AMD Fusion processors feature full integration of northbridge functions onto the CPU chip, along with processor cores, memory controller and graphics processing unit (GPU). This was an evolution of the AMD64, since the memory controller was integrated on the CPU die in the AMD64.
Read more about this topic: Northbridge (computing)
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