AMD Phenom II X4 970 to have unlockable version

X-bit Labs heard there will be two versions of AMD's upcoming Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition processor. This $200 chip has a 3.5GHz clockspeed and when it launches on September 21st it wil become the fastest quad-core chip in AMD's product lineup. According to the site, there will be two different models, the retail channel will get a Deneb-based chip with four cores, while system integrators and OEMs will receive a Thuban-based six-core chip with two disabled cores. If you're lucky you'll be able to unlock these cores on motherboards that support this functionality, but unfortunately it won't be easy to get your hands on this version of the chip.

Typically, tray/OEM versions of CPUs from AMD eventually emerge in retail markets, therefore, will be possible to acquire a quad-core product and transform it into six-core microprocessor using a BIOS feature of certain mainboards. Back in the past advanced mainboards allowed enthusiasts to re-enable disabled cores inside quad-core and triple-core processors without any instabilities caused by that, which meant free performance.

The quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition microprocessor will be clocked at 3.50GHz, will feature 8MB of cache, dual-channel DDR2/DDR3 memory controller and will be compatible with AM3 and select AM2+ mainboards.