Bulldoze that Sandy Bridge

[zalbard]

I don't understand AMD's logic at all, why not release AM3+ boards now, this will generate revenue for both AMD + mobo partners, and this will allow all the fence sitters waiting for BD to purchase a AM3+ board (and maybe even a CPU if they have a socket 7 / 939 rig) to tie them over until BD arrives...

If you go by what the local wholesale distributor says, they don't expect shipments until May. That is a ton of potential sales AMD could be generating, but instead they are bulldozing those fence sitters to intel's playground.

Maybe they are trying to get rid of old stock of boards.

[zoomee]

Maybe they are trying to get rid of old stock of boards.

Not what customers want to hear when they've just dropped £150+ on a Crosshair IV!!!! grrrrrrr

Out of principle I will be refusing to buy AM3+ no matter how good bulldozer is - waiting for AM4 or intel equivelant (if bulldozer doesnt live up to the hype).

[scorpidragon]

Not what customers want to hear when they've just dropped £150+ on a Crosshair IV!!!! grrrrrrr

Out of principle I will be refusing to buy AM3+ no matter how good bulldozer is - waiting for AM4 or intel equivelant (if bulldozer doesnt live up to the hype).

The socket will most likely be called FM4 as the AM name is being dumped by AMD. That socket better be bigger than 942 pins or it's not sale!
They (AMD) better make sure that BD has better memory bandwidth than the Phenom CPU, otherwise people will end up moving to Intel. So AMD get your act together or prepare to lose sales.
The memory bandwidth sucks as it is.

[Kobaltrock]

Maybe they are trying to get rid of old stock of boards.

I somehow doubt this, they would have stopped producing boards way before '11 swung around.

It could be a chipset issue of some kind though. End of May is a very long way away...

The socket will most likely be called FM4 as the AM name is being dumped by AMD. That socket better be bigger than 942 pins or it's not sale!
They (AMD) better make sure that BD has better memory bandwidth than the Phenom CPU, otherwise people will end up moving to Intel. So AMD get your act together or prepare to lose sales.
The memory bandwidth sucks as it is.

I am also wondering if AMD will have IOMMU on all chipsets, instead of only the fx series (990fx?). That, with increased memory bandwidth would be a killer.

Intel screwed up by not allowing VT-d on their 'k' series of CPUs, so I hope AMD enables this for all their line.

[scorpidragon]

I am also wondering if AMD will have IOMMU on all chipsets, instead of only the fx series (990fx?). That, with increased memory bandwidth would be a killer.[/CODE]

Intel screwed up by not allowing VT-d on their 'k' series of CPUs, so I hope AMD enables this for all their line.

With IOMMU missing, that might be what's causing the memory being slow on AMD AM* based sockets? Otherwise I agree with you.

[Kobaltrock]

With IOMMU missing, that might be what's causing the memory being slow on AMD AM* based sockets? Otherwise I agree with you.

Hmm ? No, IOMMU is used for I/O virtualization.
That makes it so you can run VM's with much better speed/features.

For the memory bandwidth, that limitation is from the CPU/chipset design, and I think this will be much improved when quad channel memory support is available. Unknown if that will be made available for all chipsets AMD makes.

[BeepBeep2]

Hmm ? No, IOMMU is used for I/O virtualization.
That makes it so you can run VM's with much better speed/features.

For the memory bandwidth, that limitation is from the CPU/chipset design, and I think this will be much improved when quad channel memory support is available. Unknown if that will be made available for all chipsets AMD makes.

You know, 890FX boards are affordable (Biostar) and also offer IOMMU