knakworst liet als eerste weten dat AMD voor Athlon en Duron system integrators het 'AMD Assured Motherboard Program' in het leven heeft geroepen. Het programma houdt in dat Athlon en Duron plankjes worden bloot gesteld aan een heftige stabilieits- en compatibiliteitstest, die PC bouwers er van moet verzekeren dat het produkt probleemloos in hun Athlon en Duron configuraties verwerkt kan worden. De test moet opnieuw worden ondergaan als het ontwerp van een bord wordt veranderd, bijvoorbeeld omdat de fabrikant andere compontenten gaat gebruiken. Hier de 100% droge stof uit de press release:
AMD today announced a new worldwide program designed to help ensure availability of reliable, high quality motherboards for AMD Athlon(TM) and AMD Duron(TM) processor-based computers. The AMD Assured Program, formally announced at the Fall System Builder Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, is intended to help builders of AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processor-based systems identify motherboards which have passed AMD's testing criteria.Under the program, motherboards must pass extensive electrical and compatibility testing. In addition, the motherboard manufacturer must agree to maintain a reasonable supply of the approved boards. Once they have passed the program tests, program-approved motherboards will qualify only so long as the board's design or components are not altered. If the motherboard manufacturer makes such changes, the board must be resubmitted to AMD for evaluation and such additional testing as AMD deems appropriate in order to continue to be designated as a program-qualified board.
[...] The AMD Assured Program is open to motherboard manufacturers around the world. To date, motherboard manufacturers Gigabyte Technology and MSI Inc. have each qualified a motherboard for the AMD Assured Program. Each motherboard that is qualified through the AMD Assured Program will receive a specific AMD Assured model number.
The AMD Assured program is an extension of AMD's current practice of verifying and recommending a collection of motherboards for use with its diverse family of microprocessors. (For a list of recommended motherboards for AMD processors, please go to http://www.amd.com/reseller/reseller.html). AMD plans to continue recommending motherboards in addition to operating the AMD Assured program.