ASRock shows AM3B socket

ASRock shows the AM3b socket, claiming it's the first motherboard maker to ready motherboard that use real AM3+ sockets. They claim AM3b offers several enhancement, for thicker pins and better ampage which equals better overclocking.

AM3+ is the socket that has been designed for upcoming AMD FX series "Zambezi" processors based on the "Bulldozer" architecture. ASRock highlighted the benefits of opting for its AM3+ motherboards. In the process, it ended up disclosing quite some technical information about AM3+, and why AMD designed it in the first place, when apparently AM3 can run Zambezi with a BIOS update.

AM3+ sockets can be identified by "AM3b" written on the socket, and have wider pin-holes (0.51 mm vs. 0.45 mm of AM3). It is possible that future (retail?) versions of the CPU, if not the engineering samples doing rounds, could use packages with thicker pins that are incompatible with AM3.

Check out some of the slides to get a little more detail ...