AMD will next week take its single-core Opteron 8xx and 2xx families to 3GHz and speed-bump the dual-core line-ups, it has been claimed. The move will see the arrival of Opterons with model numbers 256, 290, 856 and 890.

According to a report on Chinese-language website HKEPC, the 256 and 856 single-core chips will be clocked at 3GHz and contain 1MB of L2 cache. They have a power envelope of 95W, the site claims. The 290 and 890 are dual-core parts clocked to 2.8GHz both with two 1MB L2 caches for a total of 2MB per processor.

All four parts are expected to ship with the Socket 940 interconnect - Socket F, AMD's DDR 2-supporting Opteron interconnect isn't believed to be on the cards for release until late Q2.

The four new Socket 940 chips will be announced on 4 April. Pricing remains unclear, but it's likely to be the same as the current top-of-the line single- and dual-core 2xx and 8xx chips. If so, the 256 will cost $690, the 290 $1,051, the 856 $1,514 and the 890 $2,149, all per processor when sold in batches of 1,000 CPUs. ®