AMD AM2 Compatibility?

AMD AM2 Compatibility?

[Marc Perkel]

Just wondering if the Linux kernel is compatible with the new AM2 socket 
processors and motherboards yet? Or is this too bleeding edge?

Re: AMD AM2 Compatibility?

[Alistair John Strachan]

On Friday 26 May 2006 16:52, Marc Perkel wrote:
> Just wondering if the Linux kernel is compatible with the new AM2 socket
> processors and motherboards yet? Or is this too bleeding edge?

If you're thinking about investing in this platform (I personally wouldn't 
recommend investing in a chipset architecture at launch, but I guess if 
people have money and time to burn..), just go for it. The transition from 
nForce3 S754 to nForce4 S939 was unnoticable, and I suspect (especially for 
NVIDIA boards) that the transition between S939 and AM2 sockets will be 
negligible. You might find some hardware doesn't work at launch, but you can 
help the list fix that up.

-- 
Cheers,
Alistair.

Third year Computer Science undergraduate.
1F2 55 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh, UK.

Re: AMD AM2 Compatibility?

[linux]

> Just wondering if the Linux kernel is compatible with the new AM2 socket 
> processors and motherboards yet? Or is this too bleeding edge?

The only difference between AM2 and Socket 939/940 processors is DDR2
memory support.  So initializing the memory controller is a bit different,
but the BIOS does that before even looking for a boot loader, so Linux
shouldn't even notice the change.

The only place compatibility issues could show up is if you use the new
nForce5 chipset.  The built-in devices might work differently, or might
not be recognized, but I doubt nvidia did anything too severe; they
probably want generic Microsoft operating systems to work.