AM2, new AMD form factor

[mellow]

New AMD socket will be called AM2

Posted 12:41 - 16 December 2005 - by Wil Harris


AMD will move to a new socket form factor in the new year, which the Inquirer has revealed will be called Socket AM2.

Chips arriving on the platform will have 940 pins, one up from the existing 939 setup. However, the new 940 chips won't be compatible with the old Socket 940 boards (which, if you can remember back past the myriad of socket changes, used to house Opterons and the first Athlon FX chips).

The new chips will support DDR 2 memory, and there will be three new cores available.

'Windsor' is the dual-core Athlon X2, and will come in varieties from 4200+ to 5000+, with FX-62 at the high end. The 4200+ will be the low-end, cheap-and-cheerful replacement for the awesome value 3800+. The new dual-core chips will support AMD's virtualization technology, allowing users to run multiple operating systems simultaneously.

The FX-62 will allegedly be clocked 2.67GHz and will come with a faster version of the HyperTransport bus. Whereas HT runs at 200MHz at the moment, the FX-62 will support HT at 333MHz, which should provide an incredible boost in performance.

'Orleans' is single core, and will come 3500+ to 4000+ versions. 'Manilla' is the new Sempron, and this will go from 3000+ to 3600+. The Semprons will be 64-bit.

[yogurt_21]

ahh but when?

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by mellow

Whereas HT runs at 200MHz at the moment, the FX-62 will support HT at 333MHz, which should provide an incredible boost in performance.

That's approx 66% increase in speed. I'm still trying to figure out why people are making such a big deal about virtualisation? Sure, it's useful in a corporate environment, but I'm not so sure about home.

[Allan]

Originally Posted by Áedán

That's approx 66% increase in speed. I'm still trying to figure out why people are making such a big deal about virtualisation? Sure, it's useful in a corporate environment, but I'm not so sure about home.

Agreed. Virtualization will probably not be used by many home users. IMHO, virtualization is more of a marketing trick than anything.

The move to DDR2 is much more interesting, and the HT speed increase as well on the FX.

The increased memory bandwith with DDR2 is likely to be quite useful in an X2 setup, finally making DDR2 worthwhile even with the poor latency.

[madcatmk3]

even though I'm sure the fx-62 provides a huge boost it's stilllnot justfied spending a $1000 on the CPU.

[Allan]

I recently got an FX in, but I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
Damn education taking all my time!

Its no -62 though, just a plain FX-55. I wonder how well it works with the 7800GT. Ah well.

[gedon]

Originally Posted by mellow

The FX-62 will allegedly be clocked 2.67GHz and will come with a faster version of the HyperTransport bus. Whereas HT runs at 200MHz at the moment, the FX-62 will support HT at 333MHz, which should provide an incredible boost in performance.

I have no problem to run higher ht speeds than 333MHz. drop cpu-multi down and increase ht, where is the big difference between a "normal" cpu and a fx62? except higher qualitiy and a completely unlocked multi

[Exile69]

Any idea what the cache will be like on those things?

[madcatmk3]

Originally Posted by gedon

I have no problem to run higher ht speeds than 333MHz. drop cpu-multi down and increase ht, where is the big difference between a "normal" cpu and a fx62? except higher qualitiy and a completely unlocked multi

really, what mobo do you have?