AMD Barton will get 400MHz FSB in May

AMD HAS LET THE CAT out of the bag on a new version of its Athlon processor. DigiTimes has learned that the company has informed chipset designers and motherboard makers that a version of Barton with a 400MHz front side bus (FSB) will become available in May. The only difference between the current Barton and the newer processor will be the FSB speed. However, that could be enough to cause a reasonable jump in both performance and PR rating. Based on previous increases in FSB speeds, there should be at least a 5% improvement in performance, probably turning a 2.17GHz 3000+ Barton into a 2.2GHz 3200+.

Chipset makers and motherboard manufacturers have indicated that they will support the new chip. The timing could be better for some of them, AMD has only just introduced the Barton with a 333MHz FSB and Via’s latest KT400a only supports that speed. Perhaps there will be a KT400B?