Phenom quad-core CPUs due out on November 20?

Although AMD has already said it will make its Phenom CPUs available in November, the chip maker has yet to announce a specific release date. However, citing their usual sources at motherboard makers, DigiTimes is now giving us a specific date for the Phenom introduction: November 20.

If earlier rumors are to be believed, the first two Phenom quad-core processors to hit the market should be the 2.2GHz Phenom 9500 and the 2.4GHz Phenom 9600, both sporting 512KB of L2 cache per core and 2MB of shared L3 cache. Both the 9500 and 9600 chips will consume up to 89W and sit on 3.6GHz HyperTransport 3.0 buses via the Socket AM2+ interconnect. The 2.6GHz Phenom 9700 should follow a month later, upping the bus frequency to 4GHz with a TDP of 125W.

However, with quad-core CPUs accounting for less than 10% of the whole CPU market, DigiTimes says manufacturers don't anticipate any real boost in demand until the first quarter of 2008, when dual and tri-core versions show up in the market.