Earlier today AMD launched its Sempron budget processor line, listing Socket A and Socket 754 desktop and mobile CPUs among the line-up.
NVIDIA responded that its current and future nForce chipsets will support the Semprons.
"Nvidia has nForce MCPs [media and communications processors] for all flavours of the AMD Sempron processor family," the company gushes. That includes "nForce 2 IGP for 462-pin/AGP, nForce 3 250 for 754-pin/AGP and next-generation nForce MCPs for 939-pin/PCI Express".
This means that the Sempron will use Socket 939 and PCI Express later this year.
Nvidia adds: "Next-generation PCI Express [MCPs] are scheduled to be available later this year in time for AMD Sempron market availability."
That may well be the Sempron 3000+, which wasn't mentioned in AMD's announcement today, but turns up in the chip maker's online FAQ. It will ship in Q4, the AMD web site reveals.
It's likely then that the PCI Express nForce part(s) will ship in Q4, too.
No doubt all this arises from AMD's decision to pull forward the Sempron unveiling from 17 August (we hear) to today, ahead of the arrival of 64-bit Xeon DPs (aka 'Nocona') and workstation-oriented Pentium 4s from Intel on Monday.
Recommended: Click here to Update all your outdated drivers