Although it's public knowledge that Intel's "Penryn" processor is launching on Nov. 12, I checked with Intel PR to see what's been (and what will be) officially released.

As of Friday, the word is that the the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and "several" Xeons will be launched on that date. Intel talked a bit about the chip at its "Skulltrail" platform talk at the recent Intel Developer Forum. The new 3.0-GHz QX9650 microprocessor, part of the "Yorkdale" family, will use a 1.3-GHz front-side bus, a 12 Mbyte level-2 cache, an LGA775 socket and consume 130 watts of power.

The more mainstream 45-nm Penryn parts will be available in the first quarter of 2008, and chances are those will be the ones you'll buy. No word on pricing yet, but Intel's Extreme chips have traditionally been priced at $999. That's one heck of a Christmas present.

Oh, but are you interested to know what the performance is? Check back in a couple of days...

Source:? ExtremeTech

Penryn, Intel, Processor, CPUs, Launch