AMD confirms the B550A chipset for OEMs

We have been waiting for the B550 motherboards for some time, but there is no official news yet. In the past few hours, however, AMD has confessed a detail that opens the door to some options. Robert Hallock, one of AMD's marketing directors, has indeed confirmed the existence of the chipset B550A and made it clear that it is a chip other than the B550.

In a post on Reddit in which a user asked for information on a preassembled PC based on a motherboard B550 of ASRock, Hallock intervened specifying that it was not the B550 chipset, but the B550A.

“No, it integrates a B550A motherboard. This is one variant of the PCIe 3.0 “Promontory-LP” chipset (e.g., X470, B450) specific for use in pre-assembled systems (for example OEM customers) “.

This means that B550A is basic a refresh 400 series chipsets. Hallock also answered a question from a user as to why AMD created the B550A chipset (implying that the name was confusing).

“OEMs are also customers, and they could have different needs or requests compared to private individuals. Not all decisions made must be considered under the same lens with which a product is judged for the retail market “.

The B550A chipset therefore exists to meet the demands of PC manufacturers (OEM), not for normal customers. AMD believes that the renewal of a previous chipset may still affect OEMs, who are always ready to embrace less expensive hardware. Customers who buy pre-assembled PCs may not be interested in the chipset model used, in fact they may not even know what a chipset is.

Finally, it should be noted that AMD's marketing has “bothered” to correct a post on Reddit that was attracting little attention. This it could be a signal that the B550 cards are coming and that they will not be a refresh of the previous generation.

Maybe AMD doesn't want the community to think of receiving a chipset similar to the one intended for OEMs? Or maybe it could indicate that the B550 chipset simply doesn't exist? Difficult, given that for each generation AMD has proposed two chipsets, one X and one B. Unfortunately there is still no confirmation on the characteristics of the B550 chipset (in particular we would like to know if it will support the PCIe 4.0), but we'll probably know more soon.