The first hexa-core processor for the retail market will be launched by Intel in Q1 2010, dubbed Gulftown. The processor we have been following over the last months is rumored to be named Core i9, and use 32nm technology. Even though it’s still six months to go before we will see Gulftown in stores the first test samples of Intel’s six-core has ended up in the hands of enthusiasts. Asian overclocker JCornell has published a couple of pictures and screenshots revealing the new 6-core processor.
With six physical cores and HyperThreading support, twelve cores are recognized by Windows and the engineering samples JCornell acquired operate at 2.4GHz. The processor has 12MB shared L3 cache and the screenshots posted show two of these beasts in a dual-CPU configuration on Intel’s LGA1366 platform.
The processor refused to boot on a regular X58 motherboard and so far it’s uncertain whether the CPU really is Intel’s Gulftown, as CPU-Z shows. Gulftown is targeted for the retail market but these 6-core models that support dual-CPU configurations could be the server equivalent of the Xeon family.
Either way, if we’re dealing with Intel’s 32nm Westmere architecture it clearly shows that it has come a long way, even for the LGA1366 suit.
