14 DAY TRIAL // Together with a wide series of processors based on the Daned and Propus cores, AMD is also preparing to launch its fastest dual-core Athlon II CPU to date, the Athlon II X2 275 that will be clocked at 3.5GHz.
The processor wasn't made official by AMD, but it has been uncovered by the XFastest publication in the CPU support list of both ECS and Biostar motherboards.
According to the information provided, the CPU will be clocked at 3.5GHz, which makes it 100MHz faster than the current Athlon II X2 270.
However, the 270 is only available to OEMs and system integrators, so if the 275 makes its way into retail it will compete with the 3.3GHz clocked Athlon II X2 265.
The three processors pack a similar feature set and all of them are based on the same K10.5 architecture as the more expensive Phenom II CPUs, but lack support for Level 3 cache memory and come with two cores disabled.
Still, they do integrate a dual-channel memory controller, that can work with DDR2 and DDR3 memory and a 16-bit HyperTransport link, clocked at 2 GHz, features similar to those of their older brothers.
TDP is rated at 65W and the chips are compatible with the current AM3 and AM2 motherboards, as well as with the upcoming AM3+ boards.
Pricing is not available yet, but the boxed version of the AMD Athlon II X2 265 retails for $77.99, so the 275 is also expected to come under the $80 mark.
Apart from the Athlon II X2 275, the second and third quarters of 2011 will also mark the introduction of the Athlon II X3 460, Athlon II X4 650, Phenom II X4 850, Phenom II X2 570 Black Edition and the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition CPUs.