AMD Athlon FX socket 939 will not fit in socket 940 motherboard

Posted on Friday, August 22 2003 @ 11:30 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
X-bit Labs has got a confirmation that the AMD Athlon 64 FX (codenamed San Diego) with socker 939 will be launched next year, and that it will not be compatible with existing socket 940 motherboards. This is because the design guide will be available only in October.

The new Athlon 64 FX microprocessor with dual-channel memory support is not likely to require expensive registered DIMM modules and hence will be more popular among end users. A problem with it is that it will not be compatible with existing Socket 940 mainboards since the design guide for the part will be available only in October. Looks like AMD goes Intel steps and forces some of its customers to play “change your mainboard game” next year.

Small quantities of the AMD Athlon 64 FX “San Diego” microprocessors made using 90nm fabrication technology in either AMD Fab30 in Dresden, Germany, or in IBM’s East Fishkill facility, will be available at the end of the first quarter next year, whereas massive quantities are expected to hit the market in the second quarter. Their core-clocks are very likely to be 2.60GHz or beyond to beat Intel’s Prescott processors at 3.60 – 3.80GHz that also have 1MB of L2 cache.

There is no information about the branding of San Diego code-named chips, but I would expect them to use the same branding method that will be found on this year’s AMD Athlon 64 FX processors with dual-channel memory controllers.



Conclusion ; Buying a socket 940 AMD Athlon FX processor will not be interesting, because a few months later you will not have the option to upgrade your CPU to the latest socket 939 Athlon 64 FXs unless you buy a new motherboard. This is indeed just like Intel his first socket 478 Prescotts.

Source : X-bit Labs


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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