Euh shouldn't the emphasis be on making programs and games actually use 4 cores instead of jumping to 16? Not to mention making everything 64 bit and optimizing it.

Wow just imagine the cpu muscle of 16 cores, encoding at light speed!!

Do i have to mention that this proc is not for gaming purposes?

Save for mostly encoding apps, theres nothing that really takes full advantage of my i7. So using a 16 for gaming would be a major overkil.

This will become much more exciting once more than a small handful of programs can utilize multiple cores.

In the area these CPUs are being developed for, multithreading is not a problem...

I use all eight cores of my dual AMD Opteron workstation for rendering 3d. So, yes, I do welcome even more cores.

lol, AMD soulcn't even make it's quad core run efficiently at lower power condition. Beside, of all software and OS out there, non of them utilize multi-core efficiently, and it may not for another few years.

AMD has a habit, hype up what they couldn't deliver on time with purpose to jack up share price. AMD products always delay over delay delivered to store shelves. I think govt should regulate such practice for coporation to scam investors money.

The last time AMD rushed a processor to market, they brought out the Phenom. Let's hope they learned a lesson or two from that Jar-jar Binks disaster when they ambitiously go for this new roadmap.

I think its a bad idea to show your whole hand at the start of a poker match. This info seems to just give intel the heads up to counter with newer features/models. But I guess that benefits the consumer in a way at the end. Either way this just seems a marketing tactic to raise stocks quickly since what end user is really blown away by hearing 16 cores is coming in a few years. As the article said, seeing is believing and talk is cheap. Its like "We drew this picture of a flying car? You interested? Check back in 2050."

Btw, does anyone agree that the grey neutral comments on here are too light. Can anyone from toms fix that? Shouldn't it be positive is green txt, red negative, DARK gray or black for neutral? I've been just skipping grey ones.

guys, this is probably for servers not your custom gaming machine. by then vmware will probably have support for 16 cores. for now, with vsphere 4 it's atleast 8.

wow, that is amazing, one step closer to Cyberdyne and terminators!

I just hope this will mean Phenom III, FX or whatever 12 core CPUs to be released to the mainstream market.

It guys are gonna love those, more cores at the same tdp and more memory for virtualizing more servers. I love how people always complain when server hardware is discussed how unsuitable it is. If they dont build these multicore cpus then the lazy developers will never learn how to code for them. Learning how to efficiently write multithreading code is our biggest problem at the moment, its HARD to do it properly. I hope your not seriously thinking we would be better off with the P4's at 6ghz now instead ? ugh. I for one welcome more cores, the more the merrier.

but can it run four instances of crysis?

I can tell someone is green or has no idea what a server and/or a workstation is and does when they are talking about playing video games on a 12 core or even a 4 core processor. I play video games on my "play" PC but in the commercial/industrial world where speed means money... 12 core is on the right path towards effective computing. Any web server serving out apps and any kind of OLAP surely benefits. The only thing I want squared up is the pricing of server licensing and core/cpu quantities.

In anycase it's all right at the beginning of the article and title... it's an Opteron processor. Opterons are dedicated for server / workstation environments so asking for video game comparisons is strange.

Thanks alot ha ha haaa now I can't get the image of Jaw-Jaw Binks numbing his toung out of my mind lol
Never the less is true if you keep rushing you will end up like Microsoft But they have a persentage rateing for how much boobs they can release in a package for other people to fix with service packs
apple seams to be picture perfect Intel is makeing sure they are I hope AMD/ATI do the same there is nothing worse then a rushed product with mistakes
Gazz

This is great news for servers. I'm just worried that AMD and Intel is handing over there PC market shares to a much more powerful dual core Via in the short future. A dual core taking full advantage of the 32nm node could easily shake up the industry. Gamers have seen little performance improvement since the core 2 duo back in 2006. Software infancy is being over looked by both these company's. I suggest they both look at a 8GHz dual core on the 32nm which can be transitioned to a quad on 22nm.

I'm sure in 2011 there will be programs that utilize all the cores.

It definitely seems to be nowadays, more of a core-race than an architecture race.

Are these processors really going to be Next-gen, with more cores? Sure some of us on these boards use applications suited for multi-threading and multi-cores, but how about a new processor that just dominates the previous model, all around AND with a few more cores?

Is everyone excited to upgrade your server!! ... I didn't think so, The cost of these processors and the fact that they are made for servers makes this article unappealing to me. Tell me when these babies hit the desktop market.