Originally posted by: PetNorth
It's important to read (and write from digitimes part) properly. Motherboards sources talk about K8L on AM3. AMD have stated K8L will be first with DDR2, and the only socket compatible for DDR2 is AM2. The rest is a miscomprehension from digitimes writer.
That's exactly right.
Mobo makers only cater to the infrastructure that are necessary for manufacturing motherboards, they are normally not aware of the subtle difference that CPU uarchitecture and system infrastructure may have. The desktop K8L parts will have both DDR2/3 controllers, and should be able to fit into either type of mobo infrastructure. And these should be out first on AM2 platform, but later migrate over to AM3.
Wether or not K8L comes on time, it is not necessary that any mobo maker would know the specific timeline for the uarchitecture migration, especially since AMD chips now have most NB functions integrated on die. Mobo makers are only necessarily aware of the infrastructure change, of AMD chips' migration from DDR2 to DDR3, and to FBDIMM on the server side of things. So I don't think that you will see very accurate accounts from sources withint Taiwan mobo makers.
It's important to keep in mind that Server parts normally have a more firm roadmap ahead, because upgrade cycles in enterprise/business sectors are much more regular, and the support of stable platforms are also important over the long haul. And we know that K8L for servers are coming at or before mid-2007. Desktops, on the other hand, the chip manufacturer is under a lot less obligation to reveal the exact roadmap beyond 6 months, since there simply isn't that type of constraint.
And I suspect that whether we will get K8L for desktops early, late, or at all for AM2 platform, will be dependent on AMD's the yields of AMD's 65nm processes on a new die design. And if the yields aren't as good as expected, we should expect delays on the consumer front, to accomodate server and workstation class products. And the release schedule for desktop K8L parts is NYD.