14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices is getting ready to launch its first batch of six-core central processing units at the end of April. As such, motherboard makers are, naturally, doing their best to offer as broad a support as possible for these processors. When AMD first announced its plans for the Thuban, it also revealed that it would be releasing a new chipset, as the existing ones were not going to support it. This, of course, did not prevent motherboard manufacturers from expanding the support on their own. ASUS, for instance, has announced that 12 of its AM3 motherboards, which are not all based on the AMD 8 Series of chipsets, will now support the chips.
The motherboards in question are part of the M4 line, with the exception of the Crosshair III Formula, which is also one of the most performance-packed of ASUS' whole lineup. This model, as well as several others, is powered by the AMD 790FX/SB750 chipset.
The other motherboards are based on one of the following chipsets: AMD 890GX, NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI, NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI with NVIDIA NVCC and ESA support, and NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI (with support for NVIDIA Clock Calibration (NVCC) function). ASUS even offers a boon, in that these motherboards also support the Core Unlocker technology, which activates unused cores on Phenom II chips.
"Besides being ready to support six-core processors, the ASUS M4 Series gives users of every level the best performance and value with its Core Unlocker feature," Joe Hsieh, general manager of Asus' Motherboard Business, said. "This has received notable recognition from many of the world's top media organizations for delivering a phenomenal boost in performance."
In order to enable support for the Thuban six-core CPUs, such as the 2.6 GHz X6 1035T, the 2.8 GHz X6 1055T, and 3.2 GHz X6 1090T Black Edition, end-users will have to perform a BIOS update ( ASUS' special support site will help consumers find the appropriate version). A complete list of compatible motherboards may be found here.