64-Bit Socket A?

[Sleep21]

Will AMD's "Hammer" series (Claw & Sledge) use the Socket A connection? Will I be able to upgrade from a 1.3 Athlon to ClawHammer when it seems necissary?

[NDD]

Don't think so. Socket A will serve us for another couple of years, but I think it's limited to 32-bit processors.

Best Regards ...

[Sleep21]

That's what I thought. But will the Clawhammer use DDR?

[NDD]

Do you mean DDR SDRAM or DDR EV6 Alpha FSB as Athlons ? As for the RAM, I guess the platform gonna support DDR or even DDRII, if it will be out by the time Hammers are, since PC133 is already not enought even for todays applications. As for FSB, donno, maybe HyperTransport, since it the technology of tomorrow.

Best Regards ...

[Dputiger]

Socket-A will NOT be supported by Clawhammer.

It's important to remember, though, that Clawhammer does NOT mean the immediate death of 32-bit. I see the two platforms existing simultaneously for at least another two to three years--AMD plans to keep Socket-A design for at least another two years.

Here's my call--and this is JUST my opinion:

I'm betting that either the 'Thoroughbred' or the 'Barton' refresh of the Athlon core will increase the bus speed up to either 333 Mhz or 366--possibly even 400 Mhz, as the Athlon core CAN scale this high.

Having personally run a Duron 700 at a 340 Mhz FSB, I can testify that there are no apparent reasons why the chip itself can't handle the data transfer at at least 333 Mhz.

In addition, I think we'll see additional improvements to the core thanks to a smaller die and lower heat dissapation--perhaps a larger L2 cache, a larger data bus to the cache (currently only 16-bits)

The Athlon core may be the last 32-bit core AMD produces--but I honestly think we'll be seeing great 32-bit performance from it for quite a while longer while the 64-bit Clawhammer establishes a server / workstation market.