Any idea is a good idea right now, especially at AMD who is struggling to keep up with Intel. Next year it will turn up the clock frequencies but also launch the first hexa-core CPU. The processor also known as Thuban will be named Phenom II X6 when it appears in stores and now it has been revealed that the first model will be working at 2.8GHz.
The clock frequency is rather conservative considering AMD has today, six months before the launch, processors running at 3.4GHz. But then again we're dealing with two more CPU cores here, which produce more heat and consume more power.
With AMD's current manufacturing technology 2.8GHz seems to be the limit of what a hexa-core processor can do, and it does it with 512KB L2 cache per core and 6MB L3 cache. This results in the 45nm CPU being rather large.
The processor is targeted for the Socket AM3 platform and will probably be priced high, at least relative to AMD's other processors.
Comment 
Send to a friend
Related news:
2009-11-20 AMD confirms 40nm problems at TSMC
2009-11-12 AMD and Intel Announce Settlement of All Antitrust and IP Disputes
2009-11-12 AMD goes multithreading and Fusion with Bulldozer
2009-11-12 AMD 890GX gets 700MHz DirectX 10.1 GPU
2009-11-10 AMD moves USB 3 support into 2011
Hexa-core Thuban debuts at 2.8GHz
Noctua
