Editing Southbridge (computing) (section)

== Functionality ==
[[File:Motherboard diagram.svg|thumb|250px|Motherboard diagram, created in 2007, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots]]
The functionality found in a contemporary southbridge includes:<ref name="southbridge">{{Citation |title=What is a chipset? |url=http://www.misco.co.uk/content/MODULE/MOTHERBOARDS/WHAT-IS-CHIPSET.HTM |place=[[United Kingdom|UK]] |publisher=Misco}}.</ref><ref name="Mujtaba"/>
* [[PCI bus]]. A south bridge may also include support for [[PCI-X]].
* Low speed [[PCI Express]] (PCIe) interfaces usually for Ethernet and NVMe.
* [[Industry Standard Architecture|ISA bus]] or [[Low Pin Count|LPC bridge]]. ISA slots are no longer provided on more recent motherboards. The LPC bridge provides a data and control path to the [[super I/O]] (the normal attachment for the [[PS/2 port|PS/2]] keyboard and mouse, parallel port, serial port, IR port, and floppy controller).
* [[I2C]] and [[SMBus]] controller.
* [[Direct memory access|DMA]] controller. The [[8237]] DMA controller allows ISA or LPC devices direct access to [[main memory]] without needing help from the CPU.
* [[Programmable interrupt controller|PIC]] and [[I/O APIC]].
* [[Mass storage]] interfaces such as [[Serial ATA|SATA]], [[M.2]], and historical [[Parallel ATA|PATA]]. This typically allows attachment of [[hard drives]] or [[SSDs]].
* [[Real-time clock]].
* [[Programmable interval timer]].
* [[High Precision Event Timer]].
* [[Advanced Configuration and Power Interface|ACPI]] controller or [[Advanced Power Management|APM]] controller.
* [[Serial Peripheral Interface|SPI serial bus]] mostly used for [[firmware]] (e.g., [[BIOS]]/[[UEFI]]) [[Flash memory|flash]] storage access.
* [[Nonvolatile BIOS memory]]. The system [[Nonvolatile BIOS memory|CMOS]] (BIOS configuration memory), assisted by battery supplemental power, creates a limited [[non-volatile]] storage area for BIOS configuration data.
* [[Intel HD Audio]] or [[AC'97]] sound interface.
* [[USB]] interfaces.

Optionally, a southbridge also includes support (onboard discrete chip or southbridge-integrated) for [[Ethernet]], [[Wi-Fi]], [[RAID]], [[Thunderbolt (interface)|Thunderbolt]], and [[Out-of-band management]].