While Phenoms will indeed require a new AM3 socket to tap into DDR3 memory, Fudzilla claims that the AM3 socket will be backward-compatible with AM2+ sockets. If true, that means users will be able to slap a Socket AM3 Phenom into a Socket AM2+ motherboard and have the chip use DDR2 memory. If mounted into a Socket AM3 board with DDR3 slots, however, the same chip will be able to use DDR3 RAM. Fudzilla goes on to say these Socket AM3 Phenoms will come out late in the fourth quarter of this year, with production to follow in greater numbers in the first quarter of 2009. AMD itself told us in April that volume shipments of 45nm processors would begin in the fourth quarter.