Intel Corp.’s forthcoming six-core chip for desktops is now available for pre-order in at least one online store in Europe. The listing may point to availability of the Intel Core i7-980X chip code-named Gulftown in the short-term future.

At present Germany-based retailer Alternate is listing Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition microprocessors for sale at €1099 ($1501) for sale. The company even does not provide shipments dates, which, in fact, may point to intention to advertize itself for free, but not to offer exact products to end-users. The practice is more than questionable since Intel may cancel delivery of the new chips to the company, which is why this time X-bit labs provides no links for potential buyers.

Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition central processing unit (CPU) will have six cores with Hyper-Threading enabled (thus, will be able to process up to 12 threads in total), will operate at 3.33GH, will feature 12MB of unified L3 cache (in addition to 64KB L1 cache per core and 256KB L2 cache per core, or 14MB of cache in total), triple-channel DDR3 memory controller and will be based on Westmere micro-architecture. The processor will be compatible with existing LGA1366/Intel X58 infrastructure and will have 130W thermal design power.

While the chip enjoys both Westmere micro-architecture and 32nm fabrication process, the new chip comes with disabled with such technologies as TXT or AES-NI that are needed for commercial systems.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

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