14 DAY TRIAL // With its introduction of the Pine Trail platform and its 32nm central processing units, Intel seems to have, at least temporarily, gotten an advantage over its long time rival AMD. AMD seems eager to catch up on the CPU front, however, through its 890GX chipset and its upcoming six-core processor. So far, the general impression was that the Sunnyvale-based CPU and GPU maker was going to release the Thuban in May. According to recent rumors, AMD might introduce its chip quite a bit earlier though, namely on April 26th.
While Intel has been marketing its laptop platform and chips with integrated graphics, Advanced Micro Devices performed rather well on the graphics market, being the first to offer DirectX 11 graphics. Now that it managed to get this head start in the GPU sector, the company aims to advance more quickly on the processor market as well. As such, AMD will be launching three versions of the Phenom II X6, namely the 1035T, 1055T, and 1075T. All these CPUs will be built on the 45nm manufacturing process and will be compatible with AM2+ and AM3 sockets. This might mean that they will be compatible with not just the 890GX-based motherboards, but also existing AM2+ and AM3 boards (provided a BIOS update is made).
Among the features that the upcoming chip is expected to boast is a dynamic performance boost technology similar to Intel's Turbo Boost. Known, for now, as C-state performance boost, this technology will dynamically disable unused cores and overclock the operational ones, when running applications that rely on clock speed and cannot take advantage of multiple cores.
AMD will be showcasing the six-core at CeBIT 2010, where its 890GX chipset will also be demonstrated as part of a range of new motherboards. Intel's own six-core is currently slated to debut in March.