AMD 9-Series Chipsets for Bulldozer Scheduled for Q2 2011

There has been talk of AMD's future lines of processors, and it seems that reports have finally started to emerge regarding not new chips, but the core-logic sets meant to accompany them, the so-called 9-Series chipsets.

The 9-Series of chipsets will be paired with the Zambezi processors, based on the Bulldozer architecture.

This new line will be part of the enthusiast-grade Scorpius desktop platform and is slated to begin shipping during the second quarter of 2011, according to a report made by X-bit Labs.

One asset is that all of them will boast AM3+ sockets which, in addition to Zambezi processors, will support current-generation AM3 CPUs.

There is also the high likelihood that the motherboards featuring these new chipsets will pack a slew of other innovations, like overclocking features and the Turbo Core 2.0 technology.

X-bit Labs states that there will be three versions of the AMD 9-Series north bridges, as well as two south bridge chips for them to be paired with.

The AMD 970 north bridge will support one PCI Express x16 slot and will use one of the two south bridge controllers (SB950 or SB920).

The second north bridge, the AMD 990X, supports one PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot configurable as two PCI Express 2.0 x8 slots, as well as a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot.

Thirdly, there is the even more powerful AMD 990FX, which supports two PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots instead of just one, configurable as four slots.

This chipset also boasts six PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots, as well as a PCI Express 2.0 x4.

As for the south bridge chips, they feature 14 USB 2.0 connectors, PCI bus and six Serial ATA-600 connections.

Finally, the SB950 has four PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, whereas the SB920 has just two PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and lacks support for RAID 5.