Athlon 64 Pin-Count

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Are you confused as to how many pins the Athlon 64 is going to have? Is it a 754 pin or 939 pin model? AMDZone has the official word from AMD regarding the Athlon 64 pin count.

I got my chance to ask AMD today about the whole Athlon 64 / Opteron socket situation.

There will be a 754, 939, as well as a 949-pin version of the Athlon 64. The 754-pin Athlon 64 will be for the budget systems. The 940-pin Athlon 64 will be the variety at launch. The extra one pin is required to work on the 6-layer Opteron motherboards. The 939-pin Athlon 64?s aren?t ready for shipping yet so they will be out a little later on. As for the Opteron situation, that little extra one pin is required for SMP support due to the necessary HyperTransport links. Now this can make one wonder, can an Athlon 64 be modified to allow SMP?