14 DAY TRIAL // With all the fuss about the Sandy Bridge chips that Intel is preparing, AMD decided to make its own move, at least on the enthusiast market, even before those CPUs have a chance to come out.
While preparing its Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units) to do battle with the Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs, AMD has been working on a very interesting side project, if it can even be called such.
Apparently, in order to enforce its foothold in the high-end market, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip developer will soon launch new CPUs.
The collection of upcoming chips is said to include both quad-core as well as six-core processors, though one Thuban in particular will supposedly stand out.
Said CPU is named AMD Thuban II X6 1100T and will be the strongest six-core chip ever to come out of its maker's labs.
Apparently, its base speed will be of 3.3 GHz, a frequency which, while significant, especially for a six-core, will be visibly exceeded in Turbo mode.
Once the Turbo Core technology kicks in, the clocks will jump to a full 3.7 GHz. This is quite impressive for a CPU that has a TDP (thermal design power) of 125W.
It is not exactly clear when this powerful newcomer will arrive, but it will supposedly not take longer than several weeks.
This hypothesis appears to be supported by how the Phenom II X6 1090T has seen price cuts of more or less 10 percent recently.
Of course, as already mentioned, the 1100T will not be alone. In fact, it will be accompanied by another six-core, one named Phenom II X6 1065T.
This part has a much lower TDP, of 95W, and runs at 2.9 GHz, or 3.4 GHz when Turbo Core starts working.
Finally, a third chip approaching is a Deneb, the Phenom II X4 975, a 3.6 GHz processor that will practically be the fastest Quad-Core on the market.
Unfortunately, exact prices have not been uncovered, with only the Thuban 1100T suspected to sell for something around less than $300.