Socket 939 - Definition and Overview

Socket 939 was introduced by AMD as an answer to Intel's new platform for desktop products,Socket LGA775. Although it does not support DDR2 memory, the combination of various Socket 939 motherboards and Athlon 64/Athlon_64_FX CPUs has been repeatedly shown to either match or outstrip Intel's offerings in performance per dollar ratios when it comes to content creation and gaming. In business applications and multimedia, Intel continues to hold a slight advantage.

Context

AMD's sockets, in chronological order:

Socket A
Socket 940
Socket 754
Socket 939

Socket 939 motherboards are currently available via the following chipsets:

VIA K8T800Pro (http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/k8-series/k8t800pro/)
nVidia nForce3 Ultra (http://www.nvidia.com/page/nf3.html)
VIA K8T890Pro (http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/k8-series/k8t890pro/)
nVidia nForce4 (http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4_family.html)

Socket 939 motherboards are currently available from the following manufacturers:

ABit USA (http://www.abit-usa.com/)
ASUSTek International (http://www.asus.com/)
EPoX International (http://www.epox.com/)
Gigabyte Taiwan (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/)
Micro-Star International (http://www.msi.com.tw/)
Soltek Taiwan (http://www.soltek.com.tw)

Socket 939 CPUs: Key Features

• 32-bit performance, full IA-32 (x86) compatibility and support for future 64-bit applications using the AMD64 instruction set extensions
• 40-bit physical addresses, 48-bit virtual addresses
• Eight new (sixteen total) 64-bit integer registers
• Eight new (sixteen total) 128-bit SSE/SSE2 registers
• Includes support for 3DNow technology and SSE2
• Integrated dual channel DDR SDRAM controller supporting upto 200MHz PC3200 ("DDR400")
• Up to 6.4 GB/s memory bandwidth
• HyperTransport technology for high speed I/O communication, one 16 bit link up to 2000MHz
• 64KB Level 1 instruction cache, 64KB Level 1 data cache
• Up to 1MB Level 2 cache
• Easier to set up the heat sink, no fear for breaking the processor (is this really true?)

Additional Information

AMD Product Information (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/)
AMD Technical Details for Athlon64 and Athlon FX (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_739_7203,00.html)
Introduction to DDR RAM (http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20001030/)
Socket 939 Motherboard Roundup #1 (http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=574&cid=3)
Socket 939 Motherboard Roundup #2 (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1647599,00.asp)
Socket 939 Preview & Analysis (http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/)