When will We See Six-Core and Eight-Core Processors? Processors, See, When, will

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We've been in the multiple-core generation for a while now. With dual-core processors a thing of the past, and quad-core processors likely here to stay for a while, when do you think we'll see six and right core processors, if ever?

Actually, John, if Intel's roadmap is to be believed, we should see six-core (sexa-core) processors hit the market in 2010. Westmere, the codename for the improvement on the Core i7 (also known as Nehalem), is slated to have six cores though there will be some quad-core cousins in that mix.

In fact, we'll most likely see high end and gaming chips come out in the first half of 2010, with cheaper chips coming out in the second half of 2010 (again, assuming everything stays on schedule).

Now, eight-core (octo-core) is still a ways off. Sandy Bridge, the successor to (not upgrade of) Core i7 (Nehalem) was slated to be released in 2012, but because of the success of i7, and the estimated release of Westmere in 2010, we may not see Sandy Bridge until 2014 or later, depending on what Intel decides to do.

Of course, with 4GHz clock speeds, and 8 cores, I'll gladly wait. Until then, I'll be excitedly waiting for Larrabee to see if it'll bring anything interesting to the Graphics Card market.