Socket 940, Socket 754 to Last Longer than Expected

[Boonesmi]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20031030090354.html

 

[magomago]

Officials from AMD made it clear today that the company has strong plans to support its present customers with faster Socket 940 and Socket 754 microprocessors throughout 2004.


?AMD Athlon 64 FX will continue to be supported in the 940-pin package throughout 2004 to provide a reasonable upgrade lifecycle for AMD Athlon 64 FX customers. We also plan to continue the Socket 754 as well,? stated John Crank, brand manager, AMD Athlon 64 FX processor on Thursday.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 microprocessor, the only desktop chip for Socket 940 was earlier expected to be virtually the only microprocessor in this packaging for the consumer market. Socket 940 ? originally intended for server Opteron CPUs ? allows incorporating dual-channel memory controller, a crucial paramount advantage of AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 designed for high-end gamers and power users over the typical AMD Athlon 64 chips.

With the transition to 90nm fabrication process, Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., was earlier anticipated to fully transit its high-end desktop processors into Socket 939 packaging, not compatible with Socket 940 infrastructure. However, in an attempt to increase the value of Socket 940 AMD Athlon 64 FX-51-based systems, AMD has adjusted its plans to support the 940-pin lineup as well.

Users of performance-mainstream AMD Athlon 64 processors for Socket 754 mainboards should also expect upgrade opportunities next year, as AMD informed.

Micro-architecture of AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 inherited from the Opteron processor Series 100 requires the chip to work with registered memory modules. Therefore, the Athlon 64 FX CPUs for Socket 940 coming next year will require registered memory as well. At the same time, all AMD Athlon 64 processors with dual-channel memory support in 939-pin package are not expected to entail registered memory sticks.

Users acquiring systems powered by high-end or performance-mainstream 64-bit CPUs from AMD should be pleased with upgrade opportunities, as generally those are hardware enthusiasts, who are constantly interested in boosting performance of their PCs.





Hrmm...makes me wonder if those who were ready to buy an AMD system who held off specifcally due to the fac that the did not want to get get caught in a quick transition will not go ahead and purchase.

Was anyone here planning to do that and now they'll plunk in the cash for one?

 

[randomlinh]

no.... i was waiting until it fell to the $100 range for a mid range amd 64

 

[beatle]

I still don't want to buy ECC memory.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: beatle
I still don't want to buy ECC memory.

You don't have to if you get a Socket754 processor.

This is good news indeed 😀

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: beatle
I still don't want to buy ECC memory.

You don't have to if you get a Socket754 processor.

This is good news indeed 😀

Agreed. I'm just waiting for the prices to go down on the AMD64. It will be a nice upgrade even if support lasted for less then a year.

 

[MDE]

939 is the future, so I'm still waiting for that, plus a price drop. Oh yeah, I need money to buy all of this cool new crap! This minimum wage job thing has got to change 🙁.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
939 is the future, so I'm still waiting for that, plus a price drop. Oh yeah, I need money to buy all of this cool new crap! This minimum wage job thing has got to change 🙁.

939 is the future for athlonFX... 754 is the future for athlon64... 940 is the future for opteron

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
939 is the future, so I'm still waiting for that, plus a price drop. Oh yeah, I need money to buy all of this cool new crap! This minimum wage job thing has got to change 🙁.

939 is the future for athlonFX... 754 is the future for athlon64... 940 is the future for opteron

That's what I meant... should have been more specific that I've been drooling over the 939 FX chips.

 

[wetcat007]

I think they need to make a 1 size fits all socket/boards for the Athlon 64 and the FX

 

[ViRGE]

wetcat007, they can't. Because the chip hosts the northbridge, any changes in the memory design(ECC, registered memory, etc) require a pin change if it would normally require more connections from the northbridge to the memory, so Operton inheriently requires more pins than a "basic" FX. There's also the issue of HT connections for multiprocessor configurations, so you need more pins the more processors you support. Last, but not least, there's motherboard cost, in that a board designed for an A64 is cheaper than an FX since it will require fewer traces to the memory. The whole thing's going to be insane until Socket 939 is out, and there's not much we can do about it.

 

[j@cko]

so does Socket 939 Athlon require EEC RAM?

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: j@cko
so does Socket 939 Athlon require EEC RAM?

nope, it will support unbuffered/non-parity ram (basically it will be an opteron with faster ram 🙂 )

 

[j@cko]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi

Originally posted by: j@cko
so does Socket 939 Athlon require EEC RAM?

nope, it will support unbuffered/non-parity ram (basically it will be an opteron with faster ram 🙂 )

Ok good... cu'z I just got a pair of 1gig of new PC4000 rams....

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

 

[aka1nas]

Does the K8 benefit much from faster RAM though? Or is it more like the Athlon when it really just needs to be in synch with the FSB(Now I guess the HT link speed, right?)?