Updated: AMD representative has just confirmed that the issue is a software nature and that it will be fixed shortly with a simple Bios update. AMD has assured us that Phenom II chips do not have any hardware DDR3 related bugs.

AMD's new DDR3 supporting Phenom II processors have barely made it to the market before a major hiccup has been discovered, the processors won't work with more than one DDR3 1,333MHz DIMM per channel or the memory could fail.

We're not sure how serious this issue is, but for anyone that wanted to use fast(er) memory with their new Phenom II processor seems to be in for a nasty surprise if they're running four modules in their motherboard. The exact cause of the problem is unknown and the only thing that AMD has let slip is that it has something to do with the VDDIO. The information was supplied in a CPU revision guide and hid away on page 80.

A fix is planned, but at the moment AMD is telling its partners to create a BIOS work around which will clock down the memory to 1,066MHz of more than one DIMM per channel is installed. We can't but feel a little bit sorry for AMD, as the company just doesn't seem to get a break.

You can find the page in question here and the full revision guide here