“The shift of AMD Athlon XP processors to 333MHz bus is more than possible”, this is what the core logic makers say. If I used to doubt that the Socket A infrastructure was ready for the processor bus frequency increase by Athlon XP family, then now I have to give up all concerns as the facts are undeniable.

First, the leading Socket chipset maker, owning 70% of this market, VIA, claims that “the new KT400 chipset supports all existing and upcoming frequencies of the processor bus”. This way, we can state that the new Athlon XP processors with 333MHz bus will be able to work with the new VIA KT400 based mainboards without any problems. Also VIA confirms that the already released KT333 based boards support 166MHz FSB, as we read over at The Inquirer.

Second, at the recently held investor conference call NVIDIA president confirmed that the new Socket A nForce2 chipset supported 333MHz bus. This way, all the mainboards based on it, which are due in September will be able to work with the new Athlon XP with 333Mhz bus, if they ever come to the market.

In conclusion I would like to say that Athlon XP processors with 333MHz bus are already sampling. As I read over at [H]ardOCP, the Taiwanese mainboard makers already have new Athlon XP 2800+ samples designed for faster processor bus. Also, the guys claim that there is very little time left before the CPUs are finally launched.

In this respect I would like to remind you that on Wednesday we expect new Athlon XP 2400+ and 2600+ to come out, which will nevertheless still work with 266MHz bus.