March 2010 Pegged For Major Intel, AMD Product Releases

A floodgate of confidential processor roadmap information from Intel appears to have opened up as 2009 winds down, with leaked specs and 2010 availability dates for coming products from the chip giant being splashed across the Internet.

Intel and rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) both appear to have pulled in their release dates of next-generation server products to the first quarter of 2010— setting up the month of March as a marketing battleground for a pair of rivals attempting to recapture business lost in a recessionary 2009.

Add in the expectation that Nvidia will release its first Fermi-class GPU products in the same time frame, and the early spring should be a bonanza of next-generation hardware. Here's a bit of what we've learned in recent weeks—while keeping in mind that an Intel spokesperson contacted by CRN.com declined to comment on "rumor and speculation."

Intel has targeted March 16 for the release of its Xeon 5600 sequence of 32-nanometer Westmere EP server processors for the Tylersburg platform, including several six-core editions, according to an Intel document obtained by CRN.com.

Meanwhile, with upcoming multi-core server processors code named Magny-Cours and Lisbon, AMD will consolidate its next-generation Opteron offerings into two series—the Opteron 6000 series for 2P and 4P/8P servers, and the Opteron 4000 series for 1P and 2P servers. Magny-Cours will be launched on March 29, according to a source with knowledge of AMD's roadmap, while Lisbon is expected in the second quarter of 2010.

On the desktop front, Intel is also expected to release its first six-core client processor, the Core i7-980X, in March. That's another 32nm Westmere-generation part that goes by the code name Gulftown and had been earlier thought to be branded "Core i9." Sources with knowledge of Intel's roadmap have confirmed a March release date.

Finally, the leak-fest continues with pricing and availability for many of the processors listed above, including a $999 price tag for the aforementioned Core i7-980X Extreme Edition chip. AMD's answer to that chip is its own six-core desktop processor codenamed Thuban, scheduled for release in the first half of 2010.