James Delahunty
23 Sep 2009 18:57
AMD has confirmed to Maximum PC that it will release a Hexa-core (6 cores) processor (codename Thuban) next year that will be backwards compatible with AM3 and AM2+ socket-equipped motherboards. The confirmation comes after numerous rumors suggested that the company had a new 6-core chip in the works. "We are all about platform longevity and long-lived upgrade paths," an AMD spokesman said.
The comment is likely a jab at Intel for offering three different incompatible socket infrastructures currently for Desktop computers. The "Thuban" chip is expected to be marketed as the Phenom II X6, and is derived from the Opteron chip that surfaced earlier in the summer. It will feature all six cores on single 45nm die.
Thuban is likely to pack 904 million transistors in a 346mm2 chip, compared to Intel's Core-i7-975's 262mm2/731 million transistors and the Core i5-750's 296mm2/774 million transistors. It is expected to feature 3MB of L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache.
The company did not offer up clock-speed details to Maximum PC, but it is expected to be lower than the quad-core parts due to the additional thermal output of two extra cores.