Looks like Intel has finally released an affordable, publicly-available hexa-core processor, called the Core i7-970. Now the average man finally has the ability to use 12 threads, something AMD’s hexa-cores can’t offer, at a lowered (still exorbitant) price point of $899, $100 cheaper than the much bigger brother, the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition.
Based on the same 32nm Gulftown architecture of the i7-980X, the i7-970 runs at 3.2GHz, and also has Intel’s Turbo Boost, which will presumably crank up the speeds to 3.6GHz. The affordable monster has 12MB onboard cache, and (now Intel standard) triple channel DDR3 memory interface. So if you have the cash to blow, go ahead, invest in 12 threads, and make a stitch in time.