(Insider Report) - We met with a few friends of ours at AMD and tried to weasel out the exact launch date for the company's AM2 socket. Although the replies were mostly mysterious, we were told that the socket was up and running. AMD also confirmed that samples have been delivered to their partners and motherboard production is well underway. If true, this should definitely enable AMD to have a massive hard launch.

After inquiring about the launch date itself, AMD said it would be right in time for the Back-to-School buying season. The world's second largest chipmaker further added that it would be launched in one of the important tradeshows in Q2 2006. As many of you know, there are only two shows that take place in Q2 of every year, Computex and Comdex (which appears to have decimated). Therefore, we are left with Computex, which is scheduled to take place starting June 6th. We feel this is precisely the right time for AMD to launch its next-gen. platform and catch the Back-to-School wave in August.

AMD commented that the socket would not be backwards compatible and will support only processors made for that socket. This was done to ensure that customers dont get tricked into purchasing FX processors when they really intend to purchase Opterons. We also believe that AMD adopted this strategy to make sure that people continued to purchase Opteron microprocessors instead of replacing them with the FX series.

Since AMD and Intel both generate immense profits from the enterprise market, it must be critical for AMD to preserve that market as much as possible.

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Furthermore, AMD suggested that its partners will have AM2 products to display at this year's CeBIT 2006 show, which is expected to take place in the second week of March. While AMD won't be officially showcasing its next-gen. products, its partners will have products on hand.

CoolTechZone.com will be touring CeBIT 2006 this year and we'll sure to bring you the latest updates as they take place in Hannover, Germany starting next month.