How AMD positions FXs, Athlon 64s and Semprons

YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER our story from Computex which showed an Asrock motherboard which had two sockets just in case.

In case you have forgotten, that story with a picture of the strange hybrid is here.

The motherboard makers were slightly confused over what chip would go where, understandably in our view.

For example, as we wrote last week, the first Sempr0n off the block will be based on the Thoroughbred Socket A core, with 256K of L2 cache and produced at 130 nanometres.

Shortly to be followed by Paris, a 754 pin Sempron which includes "cool'n'quiet" and again is built on 130 nano tech, but with silicon on insulator.

Later to be followed by the Sicilian chip, which again is a 754 pin baby, with 256K L2 cache, "cool'n'quiet" but based on 90 nanometre tech and slated for the fourth quarter of this year.

As we now know, the Athlon XP is not long for this world, and AMD is moving the Sempron into place to displace the now ancient chip. Don't forget that you can plug Semprons into MP boards and generally speaking, they will work.

You would think Intel and AMD were twins like the Good and Bad Spinolas, their pricing and marketing strategies are so close together. You will have to make up your own mind which is the Bad One and which is the Good One - no moral guidance in the pages of the INQ. [Note, the Good Spinola is on the right, but casts no shadows. Ed.]

We have now progressed beyond frequency numbers from both AMD and Intel so that the firms give their customers "model number roadmaps" - we hope that retail staff in Best Buy, PC World and everywhere else have their crib sheets handy for this sort of stuff.

When we saw AMD's "model number roadmap" last week at the Porcupine, we swiftly scribbled it down using handwriting recognition software called our brain.

Price	Q3 2004	Q4 2004	Q1 2005	Q2 2005
$2000+	FX 53	FX 55	FX 55	FX 57
$1300+	3800+	4000+	4000+	4000+ plus
$1000+	3700+,3500+	3800+, 3700+	3800+, 3700+	3800+, 3700+
$800+	3400+,3200+	3500+, 3400+, 3200+	3500+, 3400+, 3200+	3500+, 3400+
$700+	3000+, 2800+	3000+, 2800+	3000+	3200+, 3000+
Value $600	3200+, 3000+ 3100+	3100+	3100+	3400+
Value $500	2800+, 2600+ 2800+, 2600+	2800+	2800+	3100+
Value $400	2500+, 2400+	2600+, 2500+	2600+, 2500+	2800+, 2600+

The bottom left of the table shows a combo of Athlon XP and Semprons. The Athlon XP only lasts through Q3 of this year. The black background indicates Sempron chips.

You probably are wondering about the longevity of the Socket A motherboards. They do continue right through to the end of 2005, but only for certain Semprons in the second to lowest and lowest value tiers. The highest clock speed for a Socket A Sempron will be 2800+.

The majority of Athlon 64s and higher speed Semprons will use Socket 754, while the very top end chips, that is to say the first two slabs above, are 939 pin babies. µ

See Also
AMD's dual core Toledo to sample first half 2005
AMD takes Intel head on in Celeron Sempr0n match

The INQ guide to Intel model numbers