An unconfirmed report coming out of OCWorkbench says that AMD may reveal the six core Phenom II X6 at CeBIT (March 2-6), to be followed with a retail launch on April 26.
Roughly timed to coincide with the upcoming introduction of the AMD 890-series chipset, the Phenom II X6 (codenamed Thuban) is a six core Phenom processor based on the company’s Istanbul design for the server market.
Said to be launching with a technology known for now as “C-state performance boost,” Phenom II X6s are alleged to be capable of dynamically adjusting core frequencies up to the maximum limit of the chip’s TDP. Those familiar with Intel Turbo Boost will no doubt see the similarities.
Reports suggest that the dynamic clocking functionality comes in response to the dearth of software that’s aware of two cores, much less the six offered by AMD’s Thuban architecture. By disabling idle engines and overclocking the remaining cores, the X6 can more quickly process single-threaded workloads.
Other specs are said to include 6MB shared L3, 512k exclusive L2 per core, DDR3-1333 support, clockspeeds up to 2.8GHz, and a TDP of up to 140W.
Finally, at least a trio of Phenom II X6 CPUs, including the 1075T, 1055T and 1035T, are currently known and will be available as part of the company’s upcoming Leo platform.
The Leo platform
AMD's 2010 desktop platform roadmap.
Purpose: Enthusiast desktop
Date: 1H10
Chipset: RD890 northbridge, SB800 series southbridge
CPU: Phenom II X6, X4, X3, X2
GPU: Radeon HD 5000 series
In addition to heralding the arrival of the Thuban CPU, the Leo platform is significant in that the RD800/SB800 chipset combo is the first major overhaul to AMD’s chipsets since November 2007. The company launched the 790FX chipset that year, and it’s still the most feature-rich chipset in the company’s stable; AMD has released several subsequent derivatives of the 790FX, but it’s still the cream of the crop.
The RD/SB800 combo kicks it off by boosting the HyperTransport frequency up to 4000MHz, adding optional support for SATA 6Gbps and enhancing power savings. We can only imagine that USB 3.0 support won’t be far behind as an add-in ASIC at the discretion of motherboard vendors.
AMD has also tapped the upper echelon of Evergreen parts, the Radeon HD 5800 and 5900 series, to complete the picture.
Considerations
Phenom II X6 chips may carry a premium above what AMD fans are used to, as Intel’s competing Core i7 980X will flirt with the $1000 barrier. Given that the entire spectrum of possible prices below $1000 appears to be AMD’s game, don’t be surprised if the company flexes a little margin muscle for the privilege, and to recoup the material costs of a larger die.
With respect to the astronomically absurd price of $1000, however, the Thuban should be relatively inexpensive by comparison. AM3 users will also be delighted to know that a simple BIOS update should be sufficient to bring current boards up to snuff for the new chip.
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