freebsd i386 on amd64 hardware?

[Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra]

Rob wrote:

>
> The real question is whether AMD will change sockets again.  But they 
> claim on their site that legacy sockets will be supported.  It makes 
> choosing the chip/mobo very confusing.  Frys here locally had about 10 
> Abit AV8's, all customer returns due to socket confusion.   Rob.

Bearing in mind that I don't work for AMD, my understanding is that AMD 
has always planned on three sockets for the Athlon64 - 754 (single 
channel), originally because it can be put on a 5-layer PCB. Socket 940 
for Opterons for dual channel, but requiring a 6-layer PCB. And Socket 
939 because that one less pin allows for 5-layer PCBs and dual channel.
As far as the AV8's, you can blame the idiots at Abit for that. I've 
even gotten someone there to admit that the model numbers are 
"confusing." Abit has the KV8, AV8 and AX8. The AV8 is socket 939. The 
KV8's are Socket 754. Confusion between KV8 and AV8 is a frequent 
problem. And now the AX8 will make it even more fun - KT890 chipset. 
(PCI-Express, socket 939.) (This is not helped by the Pentium4 boards - 
AA8, AG8, AS8...)

-ksaihr