Intel to Release Six-Core Chips for Desktops in a Year.

Intel Gulftown Rumoured to Arrive in Q2 2010

[04/19/2009 11:25 PM]
by Anton Shilov

Intel Corp. is projected to release its first six-core microprocessors for desktops in the second quarter of 2010, nearly two years after the company began shipments of six-core chips for high-end x86 servers.

Intel Gulftown processors – which will be drop-in compatible with LGA1366 infrastructure – will have six physical cores with Hyper-Threading technology enabled, thus, capable of processing up to twelve threads at the same time. According to a news-story by HKEPC web-site, which cites mainboard makers, the code-named Gulftown processors made using 32nm process technology, will be launched in Q2 2010, a year from now.

The Gulftown chip belongs to Westmere family of microprocessors that have some micro-architectural advantages over currently available Core i7 processors that belong to Nehalem family. Gulftown will significantly boost performance of the microprocessors while staying in the same thermal envelope of 130W.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Intel, Gulftown, Core, Nehalem, 32nm

Discussion

Comments currently: 2
Discussion started: 04/21/09 05:31:18 AM
Latest comment: 04/23/09 11:41:23 PM

[1-2]

I guess i7 with 8 logical cores is not enough? What we need are more programs that can actually take advantage of multiple cores on the desktop. Until then, I see a diminishing return in adding more and more cores.