According to a report by Fudzilla, socket AM3's days are numbered. The year and a half old desktop platform will supposedly be replaced by a new socket called FM1 by the time early 2011 rolls around. Socket FM1 will launch alongside AMD's upcoming Lynx-based Llano APU - the 32nm CPU + GPU Fusion project we've heard about for the last few years.

Llano will be a dual or quad-core part with support for DDR3 1600MHz memory, and it'll have a DirectX 11 graphics chip built-in. Fudzilla believes the GPU will be from the Radeon HD 5000 generation, and should be on par with the HD 5350 - basically toward the lower end of discrete graphics performance. That said, it should be quicker than AMD's 880G IGP.

Socket FM1 will be paired with the "Hudson" series of chipsets, some of which will support USB 3.0 as well as SATA 6Gb/s, but most will only support USB 2.0 outright. Llano is expected to enter mass production toward the end of this year, so a CES 2011 launch seems plausible. At the very least, you can expect some major hype.