Today we have already discussed that chipset-developers are fully ready for the introduction of 333MHz system bus for AMD Athlon XP processors (see this news-story), now I am going to share a bit shocking information with you. As discovered by this site, even current AMD Athlon XP 2400 and 2600+ CPUs can run on 333MHz FSB.

On the 79th page of “AMD Athlon XP Processor Model 8 Data Sheet” the following table can be found:

FSB_Sense[1]	FSB_Sense[0]	Bus Frequency
1	0	RESERVED
1	1	133 MHz
0	1	166 MHz
0	0	RESERVED

The document refers to all AMD processors with Thoroughbred core and especially detaches the latest 2400+ and 2600+ models with CPUID=681. So, based on AMD`s own document we can claim that the latest Athlon XPs with Thoroughbred core (both with CPUID 680 and 681) are already able to work with 333MHz system bus. I will risk to make an assumption that AMD will even make no changes in the core itself when launching their new CPUs that official support faster FSB.

Well, as soon as Intel launches its 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor with HyperThreading technology enabled, AMD will have a product for answering. Although they will in doubt be able to compete with the giant in terms of rating number to core-clock, they will still have something that may be better in price/performance ratio.