Socket AM2

Richard Dower

hmmm, seems we'll noy only need a new mobo/cpu and memory...but now with the new socket retention mechanism we'll require a new cooler/heatsink as well :mad:

These guys take the piss, bloody money making scheme me thinks, wonder will AM2 be apart of nForce 5?

astrofool

1) Its not out till June/July

2) If they want to support DDR2 they have to change sockets as its not electrically compatible with DDR1

3) Before people start on DDR3, if AMD used it, the quantities would be far too low, and prices astronomical, a la Rambus

4) It seems to be DDR2-667 as the standard, which can be got at low latencies, and will actually be able to offer 10.4GB/S, whereas Intel will still be limited to what will basically be DDR2-533 due to their 1066mhz FSB

5) Hopefully by the time it arrives, they'll have implemented DDR2-800, also using DDR2 should lead to greater capacities

6) They probably won't change socket again till they move to DDR3

People with phase change/water cooling will be hardest hit here, as they will need a new cpu part. People who don't will generally get a new fan/heatsink when they get a new (hotter) cpu anyway.

po0k

The new stock AMD hsf is more than adequate.

If you're into exotic cooling, you shouldn't care about having to get a new part for a new processor.

stevenmu

astrofool wrote:

6) They probably won't change socket again till they move to DDR3

Or at least untill 2007 when they go to Socket F and Quad-Cores. Altough from the tiny bit of information in that article it looks like F will be a server orientated socket, kinda like 940 was when 939 came out.

astrofool

Socket F is indeed for servers, and will support FBDIMM's and is a bumpless design (like the p4 lga775 package).

Seeing as how dual core was supported via a bios upgrade, quad core should be similar. Given the limited logic in the northbridge now (its just a HT connection to the chip), it allows AMD to keep the same northbridges. Even AM2 will work with the ATI RD580 thats also going to support 939.

po0k

dual core was designed into the 1st Gen Opteron/A64 from the beginning, the crossbar could support two cores, they just didn't drop in the second one until recently.
Quad core *may* be slightly more complicated. If the SMP glue logic is abstracted from the cpu-chipset interface - ig. you can swap out the 2-way crossbar for a 4-way one in the same package - then yeah, it may only require a bios upgrade.

astrofool

SyxPak wrote:

dual core was designed into the 1st Gen Opteron/A64 from the beginning, the crossbar could support two cores, they just didn't drop in the second one until recently.
Quad core *may* be slightly more complicated. If the SMP glue logic is abstracted from the cpu-chipset interface - ig. you can swap out the 2-way crossbar for a 4-way one in the same package - then yeah, it may only require a bios upgrade.

I assume you're talking about the memory controller crossbar?

I guess with a 4 cpu design, they could have two of the cores connected soley to the 2 cpu's connected to the crossbar. Something like how the first dual cpu Athlon 64's worked, afaik, both cpu's don't need their own dimm's (as it were), in fact we had one working with one cpu with 4 dimm's and the other with 0 dimm's (wouldn't work with both populated, probably a VRM problem, and couldn't get it fixed as it was a prototype that was meant to have been recycled).

unklerosco

And afaik the socket mount for the AM2 is the same as the 939.. Cant remember where i read it...

astrofool

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2688