Intel's Next-Generation Eight-Core Sandy Bridge E Processor Hits Ebay

From X-bit Labs: Intel Corp. has begun to send samples of its next-generation enthusiast-class processors code-named Sandy Bridge E to various third parties for testing. At least several engineering samples of eight-core Intel Core i "Sandy Bridge E" in LGA2011 package are now on sale at Ebay web-site.

The chip marked as "Intel Confidential" has eight cores with Hyper-Threading technology, 20MB of level-three cache and clock-speed of 1.60GHz. The chip has Q19D s-Spec as well as belongs to A4 stepping. The chip is currently on sale at an Ebay auction for roughly $1400, which is considerably higher than the price of today's top-of-the-range Core i7 "Extreme Edition" processor.

The chip seems to belong to Extreme Edition or Xeon versions of Sandy Bridge E-series processors as earlier unofficial sources implied that the consumer enthusiast-class processors will only feature four or six cores. Alternatively, the eight-core silicon may mean that Intel is at least evaluating possibility of releasing eight-core central processing units for consumers in the light of the fact that AMD intends to launch its own eight-core AMD FX-series "Zambezi" processors based on Bulldozer micro-architecture this summer.

Although the chips only work at 1.60GHz and do not support Turbo Core technology, one should be able to easily overclock them in a bid to find out their potential. However, at present final frequencies of Intel's next-generation chips are unknown, hence, it is impossible to evaluate actual performance of the parts. There are more limitations: the ES chip "officially" only supports 1066MHz DDR3 memory.

Since Sandy Bridge E-series microprocessors require LGA2011 mainboards based on Intel X79 core-logic set - which are not available on sale at present - the reasons to buy the chips are not completely clear.

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