SOYO Jumps on Thunderbird

Though there were relatively few Athlon-ready motherboard models to choose from when AMD first launched its high-performance chip last year, there are already many more options for game players who are looking to upgrade to AMD's new Socket-A processors, the Thunderbird and Duron. Today, SOYO announced the release of a pair of new motherboards designed to accept both these processors. The ATX form-factor boards offer a 200MHz system memory interface, jumperless configuration, and AGP 4x support. Other Socket-A motherboard vendors include ABIT and ASUS, and they all use VIA chipsets.

The first Athlon processors used the Slot-A standard to connect the processor to the motherboard, but moving the level 2 cache from the processor's daughtercard onto the chip's silicon itself has allowed the chipmaker to migrate back to using a less bulky and less expensive socket interface (about $20 savings for the end user). Intel made a similar move from Slot 1 to the socketlike FCPGA with the introduction of the Coppermine processors.