Not so long ago we saw a preview of the new hexacore Gulftown processor, which we figured would be released into a new line-up of processors branded as Intel’s Core i9 series, but alas, we were wrong. According to the latest leaked slide from Intel, the 6-core beast will be joining the Core i7 range as the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (codenamed Gulftown).
The leaked slide also shows us some more information about the processor: it will be made using the 32nm Westmere process, have 12MB of Intel Smart Cache (L3 Cache) and a TDP of 130W. Of course, as it’s joining the other i7-9xx CPUs it will fit into the LGA 1366 socket and will be compatible with the Intel X58 chipset through a BIOS update. The processing speed is said to be around 3.33GHz on all 6 cores and 12 threads, similar to the preview we saw before.
With this revelation, we are now left wondering what will be put into the (assumed) Core i9 line-up that we have seen on several occasions in various roadmaps. No doubt more details of this chip will follow soon, as the release date is planted as Q1 2010.
