PCs were going through an evolution in the late 90s as the embedded systems are seeing today. PCs were rapidly adding peripheral ports and functionality. PC processors were finding it tough to keep up with this rapidly changing demand. The solution was to add Bridge devices - called North Bridge and South Bridge that connect to the main PC processor and can evolve rapidly keeping pace with the new requirements.
A similar tread is witnessed today in embedded applications. Phones and other mobile devices are not the same today as they were two years ago. New interfaces, increased storage capacities, support for connectivity options such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are examples of this evolution. Cypress introduced the West Bridge® device primarily to target these embedded designs, bringing in the same flexibility to the embedded architecture as North and South Bridge did to the PC.
