Advanced Micro Devices may be preparing a new microprocessor in PGA939 packaging to broaden the lineup of offerings for the emerging infrastructure. The new chip will have 1MB of cache and 1000MHz HyperTransport bus, representing a lower-speed bin of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 microprocessor.

Mainboard maker ECS has updated the list of supporting chips for latest mainboard based on VIA K8T800 Pro chipset for Socket 939 processors with AMD Athlon 64 3600+ product name. The SKU with 1MB of cache and 1000MHz HT bus has not been announced yet, but a mentioning by a mainboard maker may indicate a short release of the processor.

Additional details about the AMD Athlon 64 3600+ are not clear, but X-bit labs’ analyst Ilya Gavrichenkov suggested that the product may be a cut-down version of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 with core-clock reduced to 2.20GHz. Specifications of the AMD Athlon 64 3600+ look similar compared to those of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 product, with exception of 1000MHz HT bus, that is currently not been supplied by AMD.

AMD Athlon 64 processors with 939 pins that were released officially on the 1^st of June, 2004, integrate 512KB of L2, only a half of the size incorporated into the previous 754-pin chips, but take advantage of the very efficient dual-channel memory controller that is likely to decrease the impact of cut-down cache and even improve performance of 939-pin chips over 754-pin processors with 1MB on-die secondary-level cache, which is why CPUs in different types of packaging does not have similar model numbers at equal clock-speeds. The AMD Athlon 64 FX parts continue to have 1MB of L2 after the transition to Socket 939.

One of the other advantages AMD64 processors in PGA939 packaging provide is faster 1000MHz HyperTransport bus that connects central processing units to other parts of the system. Previous AMD Athlon 64 chips used 800MHz HT bus.

AMD currently has three PGA939 products: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, AMD Athlon 64 3800+, AMD Athlon 64 FX-53,

Representatives for AMD did not comment on the news-story.