14 DAY TRIAL // Even though Intel isn't expected to launch the first Sandy Bridge-E chips until the forth quarter of this year, such a processor has already made its way onto eBay where it is up for grabs for anyone willing to pay $1,399.
The processor that has been listed is an engineering sample chip market as a Q19D ES part and packs eight processing cores with Hyper-Threading support clocked at 1.60GHz.
These are paired with 20MB of Level 3 cache memory and Intel's Turbo Boost technology has been disabled.
The seller has listed this as a Sandy Bridge EP processor, which means that it is destined to be used in multi-socket server systems.
Sandy Bridge-E is Intel's next-generation high-performance architecture and it should take the place of the company's current Nehalem core that has been in use ever since 2008.
The new CPUs will be compatible with LGA 2011 motherboards based on the X79 chipset and will bring a wide series of improvements compared to the current Sandy Bridge processors.
Among these, some of the most important are the inclusion of a new quad-channel memory controller and that of a PCI Express 3.0 controller that features no less than 40 PCIe lanes.
Initially, the consumer space will witness the introduction of just three chips, including two six-core and one quad-core model.
Both six-core SKUs will come with a fully unlocked design, but Intel's flagship processor will work at 3.3GHz and pack 15MB of Level 3 cache, while its smaller brother will run at 3.2GHz and feature “only” 12MB of L3 cache.
The last of the three processors will pack four computing cores (8 threads), has limited overclocking potential and features 10MB of Level 3 cache and a 3.6GHz base clock.
The CPUs are expected to be officially launched in the forth quarter of 2011, while the first LGA 2011 motherboards should be showcased at Computex 2011. (via Nordic Hardware)
