AMD abandoning socket AM3?

[Evil Lurker]

Been keeping up with the rumor mill surrounding AMD over on Toms Hardware and rumor has it AMD has ceased shipments of nearly all Athlon II and Phenom II CPUs.

This is just pure speculation on my behalf, but coupled with the split of GloFlo and the success of its APU lineup, I wouldn't be suprised at all if AMD will be ceasing production of all AM3 CPUs if they have not already done so.

In addition AMD is now accepting pre-orders for Black Edition APUs. If they are capable of overclocking anything like their locked counterparts, I wouldn't mind having one at all. Again, pure speculation but I would not at all be surprised to see them capable of achieving a 20-30% boost in speed over stock when overclocked.

Also rumor is AMD is coming up with a new faildozer version where the number of transistors have been slashed. I'm guessing this new faildozer will boast higher clock speeds due to decreased heat dissipation and will compensate for whatever has been removed. And if it results in a new die faildozer yields should go up.

Maybe AMD is trying to stage a comeback after all.

[mockingbird]

Re: AMD abandoning socket AM3?

How is AMD abandoning AM3?

AM2, AM2+, AM3 and FM1 are all pin compatible IIRC, and you can even run AM3 chips in FM1 motherboards if you're willing to forego the graphics part of it...

They're abandoning Phenom and Athlon, but not AM3.

[Scenic]

Re: AMD abandoning socket AM3?

Toms hardware?! Ignore it.
That site is just a shadow of its former self.

Taking them seriously is like buying stuff solely based on newegg customer reviews.. Hongkong Flyapart LLC powersupplies style..

AM2, AM2+, AM3 and FM1 are all pin compatible IIRC

nope.avi
AM2 and AM2+ are compatible. And you can use AM3 CPUs on AM2+, but not AM2.

AM2 CPUs have a DDR2 controller only, AM3 CPUs have both DDR2 and DDR3 controllers (DDR2 for backwards compatibility with AM2+, DDR3 for AM3)

FM1 has a completely different pin arrangement and won't work with any of those.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: AMD abandoning socket AM3?

OK its like this. AMD is moving away from Global Foundries to TSMC because GloFlo wanted to charge per wafer or something and the yields weren't high enough meaning AMD was losing money, or something along those lines. Whatever the reason, they decided to cut ties with GloFlo. Source: GloFlo's website.

Anyhoos, GloFlo an TSMC use two different lithography processes, gate first and gate last. Exactly what the difference is, I admit I don't exactly know. What I do know is that the mask set for each has to be completely redone because the two processes are not compatable. Furthermore, Athlon, Phenom, and Llano all use the same silicon wafer substrate, the major difference is of die size. Athlon and Phenom use a higher nanometer process, and as such you can get more Llano CPU's per die, at least in theory.

Add it all together and... AMD is moving from one company to another. The old company's process is different from the new process, and would take millions of dollars and lots of time to make a die set to make a slower product that yields less and has a lower profit margin than another new product using the same raw materials.

Unless AMD decides to do a die shrink, it would only be logical that as soon as the contractual obligations with gloflo have been terminated, AM3 is toast.