Intel introduced the Company's Nehalem architecture, which first was used by the Core i7 processors, a technology called "Turbo Boost". This brief goes out on that by turning of some cores in the processor, other kernels work with higher clock speed than when all cores are active. This should be done within the same maximum power requirement that the processor would otherwise have had.
Now it appears that AMD also seems such a solution is a good idea. Site AnandTech presents a solution called "Turbo Core", which should be taken in the use of AMD's upcoming Phenom II X6 processor, which is six cores processors for desktop PCs. They are also known under the code name "Thuban. The first models can be expected during this quarter, probably in late April, to a highly unofficial price of between 200 and 300 dollars.
According to AnandTech the Turbo Core solutions involve up to half of the processor cores to run at up to 500 MHz higher clock speed than normal, if the other cores resting. There are a lot of software that is able to exploit higher clock speed, but it is limited with software that can exploit more than a few kernels at the same time. That is why this type of solutions of interest to many.
Should the model overview AnandTech presents is accurate, the Phenom X6 models could be run with a clock speed of up to 3.1 GHz with all the core operational and up to 3.5 GHz with half the idle state. But these speeds vary from model to model.
AMD will not yet offer a similar technology, Intel's Power Gates, where voltage is turned off to the cores resting. Instead, the increased tension in the whole piece when the Turbo-core function is activated, which happens without direct user impact. But the method is far less advanced than Intel's Turbo Boost, which include clock speed dynamically adjusted in steps of 133 MHz.
AnandTech report that the upcoming processors, including Phenom X4 T model that supports the same technology, will have a maximum power requirements of either 95 or 125 watts, depending on the model. This is nothing more than the most powerful of today's Quad-Core Phenom processors require today. Processors are still based on 45 nanometer process technology.
For PC users who already have a fairly modern motherboard for AMD processors, which means that it is equipped with the AM3 socket, it should be possible to upgrade directly to the new Phenom X6 processors without requiring other than a BIOS Update.
AMD enter on this page, albeit in Portuguese, that Thuban processors would have an integrated DDR3 memory controller with two-channel, 512 kilobytes L2 cache memory per core, and a shared L3 cache memory for 3 megabytes. It's also the first models will come in May and that they currently will operate with clock speeds between 2.8 and 3.4 GHz,
