Hi All,
just to add my two words to this discussion.
First of all of our latest NB and SB are linked with V-Link (8x, Ultra). This gives additional design flexibility. Once mainboard vendor designs the SouthBridge area, they can almost "copy-and-paste" this solution across processor platforms.
Secondly, it is much easier for debugging on the mainboard level. It is easy to identify the problem on the design stage - whether they appear on the chipset level or on the board level.
Finally - and this is already visible to the user - the same NorthBridge can be combined with different SouthBridges, reaching different price-points and feature-sets.
What I described above is what we call our V-Map Architecture.
Have fun with VIA products!
Michal