14 DAY TRIAL // AMD's continuous hunt for the Ati logos is starting to give me a headache. First, they announced that "Ati" will remain on the video cards but not on other products. What "other products" means is not so clear but I think it has something to do with the motherboards. In the hurry to prove that they can also produce motherboards which can successfully fight with Nvidia's products, AMD officials have not only converted the older Ati motherboards to the "AMD" brand but have also renamed the chipsets themselves.
As some of you may remember, Ati's Radeon Xpress 200 chip was given the name Xpress 1600 in order to sound alike the new Xpress 3200 which was being launched. The 1600 and 3200 Xpress Chipsets used 16/32 PCI-E lanes, this being the reason behind the renaming. As AMD came and integrated Ati into their future plans, they decided that the Xpress Series reminded potential buyers of Ati a little too much.
Xpress 1600 will be renamed as AMD 480X Crossfire while Xpress 3200 will be given the name AMD 580X Crossfire. There will be no technological differences between older Ati motherboards and the new AMD ones. Both 480X and 580X will continue to support the same southbridges: SB450, SB460 or SB600, and will stay on the market until the arriving of RD600. Rumors say that RD600 will only produce an INTEL capable motherboard. I'd say we should wait until it comes out to see for ourselves.