AMD has said it is at least thinking about upping the Athlon XP"s front side bus speed to 400MHz. An Athlon XP with a 400MHz FSB appeared on an AMD roadmap described by Japanese web site PC Watch last week. The site claimed AMD will launch an Athlon XP based on the Barton core, with 512KB of L2 cache and a 400MHz FSB late April/early May. Performance ratings, it said, will range to at least 3200+.
AMD, not surprisingly, doesn"t comment on this kind of speculation. However, Ace"s Hardware, speaking to an AMD operative, asked whether the company would increase the Athlon XP"s FSB to 400MHz the better to compete with Intel"s upcoming Canterwood chipset and its 800MHz FSB. The AMD guy admitted that the company is "evaluating the possibility of moving Athlon XP to a 400 FSB".