AMD's Socket AM3 processor interconnect will be forwards compatible with Socket AM2, allowing today's AM2-based boards to host AM3-equipped CPUs, the chip maker has revealed. That said, AM3 mobos will not, apparently, accept AM2 processors.

So claims a DailyTech report, citing recent communications between AMD and its OEM customers.

As we have reported before, Socket AM3 is part of the DDR 3-supporting K8L architecture due H1 2008 and set to debut late 2007 in a dual-core chip, the codename of which remains unkown. This mysterious part will be followed by 'Greyhound', a 65nm quad-core Athlon 64 part - branded 'X4', presumably. The Athlon 64 FX version, due later in H1 2008, is codenamed 'Cadiz'.

The new archicture's integrated memory controller is believed to support both DDR 2 and DDR 3 - but not, AMD's OEM documentation states, on the same motherboard. K8L will also run on a HyperTransport 3 system bus. ®