We've written about this before, but now it's official as AMD has confirmed that its six-core CPU codenamed Thuban will hit the consumer market in 2010, all the while being compatible with the current crop of AM3 and AM2+ motherboards.

Apparently, this 45nm CPU is an offshoot of the company’s upcoming six-core server CPU, Istanbul and will come with an integrated DDR3 controller, 3MB of L2 and 6MB of L3 cache. AMD also said that we should expect lower clocks than on current quad-cores, and while it’s been suggested that it’s due to the thermals, we’ll wait for the actual product before we say anything.

Curiously enough, we can’t shake the feeling that the name was maybe a typo, as we thought would’ve made more sense for Istanbul’s little brother to end up dubbed Turban – that coupled with the fact that it was announced on the Muslim holiday Eid ul-Fitr. 

A Wikipedia entry reveals that CPU is named after “a star in the constellation of Draco” which was in ancient times revered as the North Pole star and we hope this gives AMD the “guiding light” they sometimes oh-so desperately need. Unfortunately, this star has since wandered off its ancient position and is no longer the North Pole star so it won't guide you anywhere, but fear not, as it will be back in position once again in the year 20346. Maybe then we'll see AMD looking down on Intel. (Just in time for the Duke Nukem Forever launch. sub.ed.)

This CPU launches in 2010 and will compete with Intel’s Gulftown, but the backwards compatibility might prove to be a significant edge.

Also read:

AMD to launch six core desktop in 2010