AMD's anticipated top-of-the-line chipset, the RD790, has won the approval of PCI Express overseer, the PCI SIG, for its compatibility with version 1.1 of the standard.

The RD790 turned up on a leaked chipset roadmap last month. It's expected to appear this summer to support AMD's next-generation Athlon processors, all of which will use the Socket AM2+ interconnect running HyperTransport 3.

The PCI SIG approval notice provides no details about the chipset's features beyond PCIe 1.1 support. The part is listed as a product in its own right and as part of a motherboard reference design. The chip is expected to go out to mobo makers with AMD's SB600 South Bridge chip.

The RD790 is expected to be accompanied by the mid-range RX740 and the budget RS740.