AM2, AM2+, AM3...
The Inq:
..."AM2+ is a variant that will arrive in the Barcelona time frame, basically Q2. It brings us the wonder of split voltage planes so you can "volt" the CPU differently from the memory controller, freeing AMD from one of its bigger frequency scaling headaches. AM2 chips can plug into AM2+ sockets, and AM2+ chips can plug into AM2 sockets, but you will lose functionality in the latter case, and not gain anything in the former.
AM3 is the successor to AM2+ (duh), and it arrives in the Shanghai/Budapest generation. AM3 chips have HT3.0 and force a split voltage plane. You can do all sorts of tricks with HT3.0 that you could not do with HT2.x, so this will be a major step forward, but the pin count should not change.
You can plug an AM2+ chip into an AM3 socket, and plug an AM3 chip into an AM2+ socket. Again you do not gain functionality going forward, and you lose functionality going backward. This assumes that the AM3 boards do not use features that make the AM2+ chips choke like splitting HT links. While I have not heard for sure, this AM2+ chip on advanced AM3 boards does not sound feasible, so I will go out on a limb and say it won't work."...
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35902
The Inq:
..."AM2+ is a variant that will arrive in the Barcelona time frame, basically Q2. It brings us the wonder of split voltage planes so you can "volt" the CPU differently from the memory controller, freeing AMD from one of its bigger frequency scaling headaches. AM2 chips can plug into AM2+ sockets, and AM2+ chips can plug into AM2 sockets, but you will lose functionality in the latter case, and not gain anything in the former.
AM3 is the successor to AM2+ (duh), and it arrives in the Shanghai/Budapest generation. AM3 chips have HT3.0 and force a split voltage plane. You can do all sorts of tricks with HT3.0 that you could not do with HT2.x, so this will be a major step forward, but the pin count should not change.
You can plug an AM2+ chip into an AM3 socket, and plug an AM3 chip into an AM2+ socket. Again you do not gain functionality going forward, and you lose functionality going backward. This assumes that the AM3 boards do not use features that make the AM2+ chips choke like splitting HT links. While I have not heard for sure, this AM2+ chip on advanced AM3 boards does not sound feasible, so I will go out on a limb and say it won't work."...
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35902
