[Rumor] 6-core Phenom II to launch in 2Q10

Robert Hallock 31 Dec, 2009 at 12:18pm ET Article published in Tech

Various sources are “confirming” that AMD has pulled in the launch of the 6-core Phenom II parts to 2Q10 to coincide with the introduction of the Core i7 980X.

AMD’s hexa core CPU, better known by its codename Thuban, is a desktop implementation of the firm’s hexa core Istanbul-class Opteron. The new chips will feature 6MB shared L3, 512k exclusive L2 per core, DDR3-1333 support, clockspeeds up to 2.8GHz, and a TDP of up to 140W. As a perk, the chip should be a drop-in upgrade for nearly any AM3 motherboard, provided a BIOS updated is thrown down the pipe.

Finally, though there is no word on pricing, it’s believed that the chip will launch with two models.

Comments

31 Dec 2009 ~ 1:45pm photodude I wouldn't be surprised if this coincides with the rumored launch of AMD's next Chipset
31 Dec 2009 ~ 2:07pm pigflipper Good to hear about them working in current gen AM3 boards. Any chance this will drive down the prices on the X4 series?
31 Dec 2009 ~ 2:19pm Thrax

photodude wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if this coincides with the rumored launch of AMD's next Chipset

There's no rumor about it: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/amd-in-2010-part-1-new-platforms/
31 Dec 2009 ~ 3:24pm Cliff_Forster I'll stick with four cores and higher clocks for now, but if your a multitasking nut this has got to be good news.

Honestly, It feels like AMD has not had anything new on the CPU side for a while now, whats already there has to be so appealing to people at the prices offered, its hard to know exactly where to go without another process shrink. I think 2010 is going to be a little slow on the CPU end, 2011 is when the mind blowing things are going to happen. Even then, we have had this discussion, can CPU's do anything much beyond what they have to feel sexy anymore?

2010, the year the GPU begin's to take over?
31 Dec 2009 ~ 3:58pm chrisWhite This is win for cheap rendernodes.
31 Dec 2009 ~ 4:55pm TMW i was wondering, bit of out topic, how much faster is a dual core 2ghz vs a same architecture cpu which is running at 4ghz? i mean side by side in threaded apps. its hard to get these kind of benchmarks.
1 Jan 2010 ~ 8:38am photodude

photodude wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if this coincides with the rumored launch of AMD's next Chipset

Thrax wrote:

There's no rumor about it: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/amd-in-2010-part-1-new-platforms/

Looks like I was thinking faster then I was typing......(somedays I should triple read what I'm writing before posting)

I was intending to say that, I wouldn't be surprised if the release date is being pushed back to match the rumored April release date for the next Chipsets
3 Jan 2010 ~ 11:44pm Thrax

TMW wrote:

i was wondering, bit of out topic, how much faster is a dual core 2ghz vs a same architecture cpu which is running at 4ghz? i mean side by side in threaded apps. its hard to get these kind of benchmarks.

In other words: The same processor at 2GHz, then 4GHz?
4 Jan 2010 ~ 5:24am aj do u know that Thuban in arabic means a snake
5 Jan 2010 ~ 8:07pm Komete It's Dragon in Arabic or large serpent. I think they are going for the Dragon or the star. Although, I thought AMD named its cpu's after race tracks. Is there a Thuban speedway somewhere?
9 Jan 2010 ~ 5:07pm Alex @Komete,
Thuban is named after the star.
Codenamed "Thuban" (named after a star in the Draco constellation, which means Dragon).
10 Jan 2010 ~ 3:24am Thrax As it says in the article we wrote months ago that was linked in the first paragraph of this news:

Thuban is another name for Alpha Draconis, a star in the constellation of Draco. It served as the northern pole star for more than 2000 years between 3942 and 1900 BC. While Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor is todayâ€™s northern pole star, Thuban will once again take that mantle in 20346 AD when the earthâ€™s processional movements places the star back to our celestial north.

The Thuban codename makes particular sense when viewed in the context of other Phenom products, collectively known as the stars family. Deneb (Phenom II X4) is a star in the constellation Cygnus, Heka (Phenom II X3) is a star in the constellation Orion, and Regor (Athlon II X2) is a star in the constellation Vela.