Phenom II X6 anyone?

AMD six-core desktop chip to appear in Spring 2010.

According to a report at Xbit Labs, AMD plans to launch a six-core desktop processor dubbed "Thuban" next year.

Xbit Labs claims the processor will be released in Spring 2010 and share much the same features of current Phenom IIs - except for the six-core die, of course - that is, a dual channel DDR3-1333 memory controller, 512KB L2 cache per core and a crossbarred 6MB cache. According to the site, it will still be a 45nm SOI part and will fit an AM3 motherboard (or AM2+, depending on the power specs).

Sound familiar?

Not that you'd expect this information to be wrong, mind you. It is AMD's habit to follow similar paths in desktop and server development. You can see the common heritage between the Opteron and the Phenom II nowadays, so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if it were a simple remake of Istanbul for desktops.

Attempts at prying confirmation from AMD have had little effect, as the company is tight-lipped about its plans for the desktop.

Actually it did get back to us in record time, though. John Taylor, AMD's global product communications director, said that it wouldn't comment on rumours, but... "Our six-core processor lineup is well positioned in the server market, and we're constantly evaluating platform solutions to deliver maximum value to our customers."

So our interpretation is that AMD is keeping its options open until things shape up for a Phenom II X6 desktop launch, a matter of "when" rather than "if".

Considering AMD is currently shipping Istanbul this makes sense.

You can pick up an Istanbul server or workstation today - expensive-like - but as a desktop user you're probably already well off with a quad-core AMD processor for a fraction of the price. Since only purely multithreaded apps will really squeeze the taboo six-core for all its worth, you really have to wait for the desktop computing environment to catch up.

Thuban, by the way, is Arabic for Basilisk, but it's also a star in the Draco constellation. Makes sense considering AMD is all about the stars and the beasts.

The report also mentions some information about the upcoming 890FX/GX chipset that will essentially be a 790FX with a new southbridge chip, hopefully supporting 6GBps SATA and USB 3.0.