It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
of 2006.

The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:
> It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
> socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
> of 2006.
>
> The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
> http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927
>
> Yousuf Khan

Have you been able to find anything solid about whether the
Socket M2 chips will support DDR *and* DDR2 or whether DDR
support will be dropped ?

I would expect it to support both, as AMD initially hinted at
last year, but every single socket M2 reference motherboard I
have read about so far has been DDR2 only. It is quite possible
that I am hearing about the same DDR2 motherboard over and over
again, but at the same time I haven't read even a rumour about
testing Socket M2 with DDR.

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:42:22 -0400, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
>socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
>of 2006.
>
>The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
>http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927

Socket M2 for "desktop", i.e. single socket systems. The originally
expected 1207-pin Socket M2 will be Socket F for multi-socket systems
according to http://www.dvhardware.net/article4872.html & Digitimes "free"
click-thru. Also here
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...510043057.html with pics of
S1 & M2.

I hope we're not going to go to yet another heatsink retention mechanism
for M2.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 03:46:52 -0400, George Macdonald
<fammacd=!SPAM^(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:42:22 -0400, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
>>socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
>>of 2006.
>>
>>The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
>>http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927
>
>Socket M2 for "desktop", i.e. single socket systems. The originally
>expected 1207-pin Socket M2 will be Socket F for multi-socket systems
>according to http://www.dvhardware.net/article4872.html & Digitimes "free"
>click-thru. Also here
>http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...510043057.html with pics of
>S1 & M2.
>
>I hope we're not going to go to yet another heatsink retention mechanism
>for M2.

Anyway to upgrade to the new CPU you'll have to replace your
motherboard and memory, so don't cry about the heatsink. Besides, if
you buy the CPU retail, the new heatsink will be included.
NNN

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 03:46:52 -0400, George Macdonald
> <fammacd=!SPAM^(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:42:22 -0400, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>> It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
>>> socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
>>> of 2006.
>>>
>>> The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
>>> http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927
>> Socket M2 for "desktop", i.e. single socket systems. The originally
>> expected 1207-pin Socket M2 will be Socket F for multi-socket systems
>> according to http://www.dvhardware.net/article4872.html & Digitimes "free"
>> click-thru. Also here
>> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...510043057.html with pics of
>> S1 & M2.

So S1 and M2 are going to end the days when you could plug an AMD
"mobile" CPU into a desktop motherboard.

That's too bad - I loved my Athlon XP-M in my old Socket A
desktop, and I've been reading that the Turion is turning out to
be a nice chip for Socket 754 desktops.

Rob Stow wrote:
> Have you been able to find anything solid about whether the
> Socket M2 chips will support DDR *and* DDR2 or whether DDR
> support will be dropped ?

Well, somebody here pointed out that DDR2 is a superset of the DDR1
specs, so it's likely that DDR1 could be supported by the same memory
controller. It's simply possible that most mobo makers aren't bothering
to put the support in. They expect the initial mobos to be performance
mobos, so most people will be equipping with DDR2. The DDR2-800 has
likely reached performance points now where it's higher per clock
latency is now acceptable in absolute terms.

Yousuf Khan

Yeah, but the Socket S1 638-pin is likely what is necessary for AMD to
achieve even better power thermal characteristics on laptops.

Yousuf Khan

YKhan wrote:
> Rob Stow wrote:
>> Have you been able to find anything solid about whether the
>> Socket M2 chips will support DDR *and* DDR2 or whether DDR
>> support will be dropped ?
>
> Well, somebody here pointed out that DDR2 is a superset of the DDR1
> specs, so it's likely that DDR1 could be supported by the same memory
> controller. It's simply possible that most mobo makers aren't bothering
> to put the support in. They expect the initial mobos to be performance
> mobos, so most people will be equipping with DDR2. The DDR2-800 has
> likely reached performance points now where it's higher per clock
> latency is now acceptable in absolute terms.
>

Thanks. That give me more reason to hope that DDR backward
compatibility actually gets implemented in the socket F and
socket M2 chips.

I know people with rooms full of servers who are already getting
anxious about the prospect of not being able to carry their large
investments in ECC Reg DDR forward with them when they eventually
migrate to the next generation of servers. Given the likelihood
that they will end up replacing servers rather than upgrading
them, I'm not sure how legitimate their anxiety is, but it is
there nonetheless.

Rob Stow <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

> YKhan wrote:
>> Rob Stow wrote:
>>> Have you been able to find anything solid about whether the
>>> Socket M2 chips will support DDR *and* DDR2 or whether DDR
>>> support will be dropped ?
>> Well, somebody here pointed out that DDR2 is a superset of the DDR1
>> specs, so it's likely that DDR1 could be supported by the same memory
>> controller. It's simply possible that most mobo makers aren't bothering
>> to put the support in. They expect the initial mobos to be performance
>> mobos, so most people will be equipping with DDR2. The DDR2-800 has
>> likely reached performance points now where it's higher per clock
>> latency is now acceptable in absolute terms.
>
> Thanks. That give me more reason to hope that DDR backward
> compatibility actually gets implemented in the socket F and socket M2
> chips.

As I recall, the IO drivers are very similar - SSTL_2 and SSTL_1.8.
Mixing SDR and DDR IO drivers are a much bigger pain in the a**.

Cheers,


Kai
--
Kai Harrekilde-Petersen <khp(at)harrekilde(dot)dk>

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 10:15:37 -0600, Rob Stow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 03:46:52 -0400, George Macdonald
>> <fammacd=!SPAM^(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:42:22 -0400, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It's a 940-pin socket, but incompatible with existing 940-pin Opteron
>>>> socket. It supports DDR2 memory, and it should be here by the beginning
>>>> of 2006.
>>>>
>>>> The Tech Report - AMD to standardize on Socket M2
>>>> http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8927
>>> Socket M2 for "desktop", i.e. single socket systems. The originally
>>> expected 1207-pin Socket M2 will be Socket F for multi-socket systems
>>> according to http://www.dvhardware.net/article4872.html & Digitimes "free"
>>> click-thru. Also here
>>> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...510043057.html with pics of
>>> S1 & M2.
>
>So S1 and M2 are going to end the days when you could plug an AMD
>"mobile" CPU into a desktop motherboard.
>
>That's too bad - I loved my Athlon XP-M in my old Socket A
>desktop, and I've been reading that the Turion is turning out to
>be a nice chip for Socket 754 desktops.

Could be that S1 is targeted at the thin 'n' light market. They still make
Athlon64 for DTR and "mobile" as well as Turion so a Socket M2 for low
powered Athlon64 in a notebook is not impossible.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald