HEXUS.net reviews AMD's Athlon 64 FX-62 dual core processor on a ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe nForce5 590 SLI motherboard
Ask AMD why launch Socket AM2 -- the hub of a platform shift that sees them standardise on a socket for their CPUs across their entire desktop product line -- now, and they'll largely lay it at the feet of the DRAM vendors. You see AM2 is part of what helps AMD bring DDR2 support to their desktop CPU line, moving away from DDR for the first time in a number of years and rocking up alongside Intel in what's hot, memory wise, for the desktop.
When AMD first tested working Rev F (the core revision for the first AM2 CPUs), the DDR2 memory available didn't give the CPU what it needed to usefully match or beat what was available on Socket 939, at least not without spending a good chunk of money on the best DDR2 around at the time. Speeds needed to go up a notch, latencies could do with coming down and, as the DRAM vendors brought the requisite production on line, prices needed to drop.
Forecasting forward, they saw the DRAM chips falling nicely (pun intended) in the middle of 2006, around about Computex time. With the IT industry's premier trade show bare weeks away, it's now time for them to lift the lid on their socket and platform plans for desktop Athlon and Sempron...
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