AMD will indeed release a version of its Athlon XP with a 400MHz frontside bus, mobo maker Abit announced this morning. AMD has yet to announce such a part itself.
However, Abit"s press release, issued today and headed "Abit engineered motherboards support the new AMD Athlon XP 333 and 400MHz Barton CPUs", says the company has unveiled "the 400MHz FSB Barton 3000+ and 3200+". So expect an announcement from AMD shortly...
The 400MHz FSB Barton-based Athlon XP was recently revealed by Japanese Web site PC Watch to have appeared on AMD"s internal roadmap. Last week, a company representative told Ace"s Hardware that AMD was "evaluating" a 400MHz FSB. PC Watch said the chip would operate with a performance rating of up to 3200+, now confirmed by Abit. In the meantime, Abit would also like you to know that its AT7 Max 2, KD7 and NF7 mobo families are ready to support the new chip.