The overall trend in processor design has been to integrate more functions onto fewer components, which decreases overall motherboard cost and improves performance. The memory controller, which handles communication between the CPU and RAM, was 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.
Another example of this kind of change is Nvidia's nForce3 for AMD64 systems. It combines all of the features of a normal southbridge with an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) port and connects directly to the CPU. On nForce4 boards it was marketed as a media communications processor (MCP).
AMD Accelerated Processing Unit 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.
The northbridge was replaced by the system agent introduced by the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture in 2011, which essentially handles all previous Northbridge functions.[10] 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.[11]
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