14 DAY TRIAL // A recently leaked Intel roadmp has come to detail the company's upcoming high-performance Sandy Bridge-E processors. The first CPU batch will be comprised of three models which pack four or six cores and work at speeds ranging from 3.2GHz to 3.6GHz.
The fastest Sandy Bridge-E chip in Intel's lineup is destined to replace the current Core i7-990X, as well as the future iterations of this processor (Core i7-995X), and packs six processing cores seconded by 15MB of L3 cache memory.
The yet unnamed processor will be clocked at 3.3GHz and Intel's roadmap stated that it would feature a fully unlocked design.
Right below this CPU, in the so-called premium performance category, Intel will release another six-core chip that also packs a fully unlocked design, but, this time, the processor has to make do with 12MB of L3 cache and with a slightly reduced core frequency (3.2GHz).
Finally, the slowest Sandy Bridge-E CPU, uses a quad-core design, 10MB of Level 3 cache memory and has a clock speed of 3.6GHz.
What's important to note, however, is that this quad-core processor is listed as a “Limited unlocked” part, which seems to suggest that it will feature a locked multiplier or BCLK (my money is on a locked multiplier).
All the three Sandy Bridge-E chips will use the LGA 2011 socket and feature a built-in quad-channel memory controller, which supports memory speeds of up to 1600MHz, as well as an integrated PCI Express 2.0 controller that packs up to 40 PCIe lanes.
Together with the first Sandy Bridge-E CPUs, Intel will also release the X79 Express chipset which features 10 SATA 6Gbps ports, a DMI 2.0 interface, and an additional eight lane PCI-Express 2.0 hub.
A firm release date hasn't been made public until now, but the processors are expected to arrive in the forth quarter of 2011. (via XFastest)
