Intel to Release Its Fastest Desktop CPU Yet, the Core i7 995X Extreme Edition
All the talk about AMD's Bulldozer processors seems to have Intel really worried, as the company plans to release in the third quarter of the year a new LGA 1366 CPU dubbed the Core i7 995X Extreme Edition CPU that will feature six processing cores and will work at 3.6GHz.
The new chip is built using Intel's 32nm Gulftown architecture and packs no less than six processing cores that are backed by the company's Hyper-Threading technology as well as by 12MB of shared L3 cache memory.
As mentioned earlier, its operating frequency will be set at 3.6GHz and the 995X can reach a maximum of 3.86Ghz with Turbo Boost enabled.
Otherwise, the chip features the specs as Intel's current flagship processor model, the Core i7 990X, which include a 6.4GT/s QPI link, AVX and SSE 4.2 instruction support and a tri-channel DDR3-1066 integrated memory controller.
The 995X will be built using the 32nm manufacturing process and its TDP is estimated at 130W.
A firm release date hasn't been set yet, but the Donanim Haber website suggests that Intel will launch the new processor sometime in the third quarter of 2011 and that its price will be set at $999.
Considering that the company's first LGA 2011 processors build on the high performance Sandy Bridge-E architecture are expected to launch in the forth quarter of the year, Intel's timing is at least a bit strange as not so many users will run to purchase a $1000 CPU for a EOL platform such as the LGA 1366.
So why would Intel release such a high priced CPU with just a few months ahead of the launch of its new LGA 2011 chips?
On possible reason could be that the Santa Clara company is feeling threatened by AMD's upcoming Zambezi CPUs that are supposed to launch in June and pack as many as eight processing cores as well as Turbo Core technology and an unlocked multiplier.
These are however nothing more than speculations at this point and we won't know anything for sure until we see the performance numbers of the first Bulldozer CPUs.
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