chipguy,
Eventually sockets and interfaces have to change, that's
the nature of progress. But with IPF the I2 socket/interface
will have been kept stable for OEMs across four generations
of devices - McKinley, Madison, Madison 9M, and Montecito.
That's great, and if Intel asked for my preference, I would recommend continuation of this stable Itanium socket, and change of Xoen to adopt that socket. <g>
If you have an explanation how AMD can keep socket 940
unchanged and performance competitive for the next 3+ years
I'd love to hear it.
It will most likely change with K9, while some K8 upgrades (dual core, more cache, higher clock speeds) will continue, giving Socket 940 longevity of 3+ years (total).
Joe