Socket A

Socket 462 (also known as Socket A, not to be confused with the socket of the same name used for the PPC G3 processors) is a zero insertion force pin grid array (PGA) CPU socket used for AMD processors ranging from the Athlon Thunderbird to the Athlon XP/MP 3200+, and AMD budget processors including the Duron and Sempron. Socket A also supports AMD Geode NX embedded processors (derived from the Mobile Athlon XP). It compliments (and later supersedes) the prior Slot A CPU interface used in some Athlon Thunderbird processors. The front-side bus frequencies supported for the AMD Athlon XP and Sempron are 133 MHz, 166 MHz, and 200 MHz. Socket A supports 32-bit CPUs only. The socket is a zero insertion force pin grid array type with 462 pins, hence the name "Socket 462" printed on the CPU socket. About nine pins in the socket are blocked to discourage accidental insertion of Socket 370 CPUs on Socket A motherboards. Socket A was replaced by Socket 754 and Socket 939 during 2003 and 2004 respectively, except for its use with Geode NX processors.

Socket 462 (also known as Socket A, not to be confused with the socket of the same name used for the PPC G3 processors) is a zero insertion force pin grid array (PGA) CPU socket used for AMD processors ranging from the Athlon Thunderbird to the Athlon XP/MP 3200+, and AMD budget processors including the Duron and Sempron. Socket A also supports AMD Geode NX embedded processors (derived from the Mobile Athlon XP). It compliments (and later supersedes) the prior Slot A CPU interface used in some Athlon Thunderbird processors. The front-side bus frequencies supported for the AMD Athlon XP and Sempron are 133 MHz, 166 MHz, and 200 MHz. Socket A supports 32-bit CPUs only. The socket is a zero insertion force pin grid array type with 462 pins, hence the name "Socket 462" printed on the CPU socket. About nine pins in the socket are blocked to discourage accidental insertion of Socket 370 CPUs on Socket A motherboards. Socket A was replaced by Socket 754 and Socket 939 during 2003 and 2004 respectively, except for its use with Geode NX processors. == Chipsets== AMD offered official chipsets for the Slot A/Socket A CPUs. These are included in the table below. Third-party chipsets include the nForce, nForce2, and a large number of VIA K-series chipsets. In practice, third-party chipsets were heavily favoured by motherboard manufacturers. Stability problems and compatibility quirks from these chipsets abounded from manufacturers not following chipset designers' guidelines. This caused long-lasting damage to AMD's reputation, despite AMD having nothing to do with the poorly-realised hardware. A similar incident happened with third-party chipsets for Super Socket 7 CPUs, of which AMD tried to remedy it by putting quality assurance measures for the Athlon, which used Slot A/Socket A CPUs. Despite this, however, this was not enough to prevent the aforementioned problems mentioned above, and this phenomenon still lingered on for quite a while, even for Athlon CPUs.

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