Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[KeithDust2000]

wbmw, At any rate, you shouldn't expect to see 400MHz FSB Athlons in any significant quantity. It will be just enough for the benchmarks.

Inquiries I made on the subject indicate that your prediction is incorrect. Not only is the new "ultra" stepping (which is basically just a marketing name) already in use on quite a few Nforce2 boards available today (but just without the new marketing name used), but the 3200+ is already in stock at some vendors even before the launch, which is a big change compared to 2002 product releases. I´ve seen a vendor claim that the new Nforce2 steppings allow up to 500Mhz FSB using high-quality ram modules, btw.

While it´s true that the new P4 3Ghz was released prematurely to avoid AMD´s claims of highest SPEC performance at launch, it doesn´t mean AMD is doing the same. In fact, they waited a few more weeks to insure the infrastructure is ready for the new release, which will be high-end only - huge quantities usually aren´t sold there anyway - which doesn´t mean however that the effect on ASPs is insignificant.