A New Hammer Socket For DDR2? . . .

The Inquirer reports that a new socket will be required for Opteron motherboards using DDR2s.

This raises two more questions about the Hammer platform in general:

  • Does this mean desktop Hammers are going to need a new socket for DDR2, too?
  • The CPUs listed as requiring the change are a new type of 90nm chip that will show up the second half of 2005. There will be new types of 90nm desktop chips showing up the same time. Are these new chips simply DDR2-capable Hammers?

    I asked Mike Magee about this, and he said he didn’t have more information on this.

    I went over the information on future Hammer motherboards, and found no mention of DDR2 in the features.

    DDR2 is supposed to start showing up about a half-year from now, and Intel’s socket T mobos are supposed to use it. However, since Intel seems to be having Prescott problems, it’s kind of hard to introduce a mobo without a CPU for it, so it may get delayed.

    Nonetheless, you ought to be ready to see AMD put out a generation of mobos in about six-eight months, then do it over a bit more than a year after that with new CPU with new controllers for new motherboards.

    My reaction to all this?

    Cry

    Of course, it would make the customer’s life easier if AMD would just tell people what their plans are in advance, like Intel did with socket T, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.

    Ed

  • Be the first to comment

    Leave a Reply