As of current, the most powerful Intel processor is a hexa-core processor in the form of the Core i7 980x, which was released about eight months ago. The 32nm CPU uses socket LGA 1366 and operates at 3.33GHz speed with 12MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 130W. Being christened the ‘extreme’ processor, it has been sold at the price of USD 999 for months with no changes. Right now Intel is busy with their Sandy Bridge platform which will be arriving very soon, but that arrival does not include the highest performing Sandy Bridge platform, which is the replacement for the socket 1366 category. There’s still no benchmark for Sandy Bridge so we do not know if the new Sandy Bridge can outperform the extreme Core i7 but it’s hardly. Therefore the extreme Core i7-980x will remain king of crop for a few more months. But AMD is also preparing its high-end platform to compete with Intel’s top boy, so Intel is getting ready to replace its extreme processor with one that’s even more extreme.

The replacement for i7-980x, the 990x has been rumored around for a fairly long time, with only slight difference in stock speed. The 990x has a default clock of 3.47GHz. But till now it has yet been sighted in stores. Now we have one odd news. Intel is already working on a new top end processor, the i7-995x.

Reports say that it’ll follow up with the 990x, whereby 990x will be released in probably next month, and the 995x will be released in Q2 2011, with a bump of 133MHz from 990x, clocking at stock of 3.6GHz. The new 32nm flagship is based on Westmere architecture with six-cores and twelve threads. It will have LGA1366 socket which x58 motherboards are equipped with. The TPD and L1, L2, L3 cache remain the same as for 990x. Not sure how long this future extreme processor will last, until the replacement for X58 platform arrives, which is a Sandy Bridge with 8-core and 16 threads, and no dedicated graphics unlike the lower end Sandy Bridge processors. Crazy stuff indeed. Looks like X58 will live for another year.

SOURCE via Chiphell