AMD to show off triple core Phenoms at CeBIT

Towards the end of last year, AMD announced the coming release of triple-core Phenoms that would serve a new niche, sitting between dual and quad core CPUs. AMD's justification was that in terms of desktop software not many titles take advantage of four cores but there's still a reason to have more than two.

With the expected launch of these CPUs just around the corner, AMD plans to demo the processors at CeBIT 2008. The Phenom 8400 and 8600 are on the agenda, unfortunately the faster variants of the quad-core Phenom, the 9700 and 9900, are expected to be absent due to a delay in launch. The article as well as statements from AMD point the finger primarily at the TLB as the cause of the delay.

I am interested in seeing how triple-core processors fare. If there is a significant price point between dual and quad core Phenoms, and AMD can keep the triple core unit price closer to dual, it might do well. On the other hand, having three different variants for a new processor when they have already lost a lot of ground to Intel might be a bad idea.