Intel and investigative journalism – nice combination!

Let’s begin by having a few words of a highly controversial subject that may leave you wondering of its relevance in this regard. It’s investigative journalism, a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or a scandal. However, there is also a difference. Unlike the past, business enterprises and tycoons have become the focal point of investigative journalism, and the situation has already become perilous.

Who can understand this better than Intel? Thanks to a leaked report, it has been learnt that Intel's imminent "Gulftown" 32nm, six-core processor will be known as the Core i7-980X and could be a part of new Mac Pro systems from Apple in early 2010. This is not all, surely.

In accordance with leaked information relayed by Hardmac, the English-language version of French Apple site MacBidouille, in contradiction of earlier reports, the new processors will not adopt the Core i9 name, and will purportedly retain the Core i7 title. The new processor, code-named "Gulftown" will fall under the i7 "Extreme Edition" category, the first of which will be the i7-980X.

The so-called roadmap from Intel depicts that the processor will clock in at 3.33GHz. That chip is likely to arrive in March 2010, but in the past, Apple has reached exclusive agreements with Intel to be the first to carry its new processors. A number of preceding reports have suggested Apple is testing the new Xeon chip, anchored in the Gulftown architecture, in its Mac Pro desktop. The new, upgraded processor features more horsepower and lower power consumption, and will be the first dual-socket, six-core processor for Intel.

It has also been learnt that the novel 32 nanometer chips have 12MB of L3 cache, and six cores with 12 threads for each CPU. Apple, by and large, doubles the processors in its high-end professional workstations, therefore it's feasible the new Mac Pro system could have a total of 12 cores and 24 threads. The new hardware could be released sometime in the first quarter of 2010.