14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices has been developing its new range of central processing units (CPUs) for quite a while now and, with the back-to-school period closing in, is intent on unleashing its latest six-core and quad-core chips on September 21.
As consumers might know, the Fusion technology is, at present, AMD's major project, but this doesn't mean that its other outlets will go ignored.
Thus, the CPU and GPU maker will perform a major product refresh next month, when it will unveil multiple chips.
The most important of these parts will be the AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and the Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition.
The former is a six-core chip (obviously) with a cache memory of 9 MB and a clock speed of 3.0 GHz which can go as high as 3.50 GHz by means of the TurboCore dynamic overclocking technology.
This chip is expected to expand the existing line of Thuban processors, but is not exactly different, as far as clocks are concerned, from the quad-core unit.
To be more specific, the AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition has a frequency of 3.50 GHz and a cache memory of 8 MB, which basically means it will perform just as well as the Thuban in applications that need up to four threads.
Thus, it would make sense for the quad-core to be a fair bit cheaper than the six-core, in order to avoid internal competition.
The report speculates that the Phenom II X6 1075T will sell for between $230 and $240, whereas the Phenom II X4 970 will be priced at under $200.
In addition to these two, AMD will release the 3.30 GHz dual-core Phenom II X2 560 (7 MB cache), as well as the 3.1 GHz quad-core Athlon II X4 645 (2 MB cache), both sold for roughly $100 and aimed at the upper budget market.