Inqster Charlie D. took a sneak peek at AMD's new six-core behemoth, codenamed Istanbul.

The chipmaker showed off three platforms based on Istanbul six-cores. Two of them featured four sockets, for a total of 24 cores, while the last one featured "just" two sockets and 12 cores. The demos were used to show off different features of the new server parts, but no prices, clocks or availability dates were disclosed.

One of the tests on a four socket test bed was a simple show of force and a core count. The two socket system was used to demonstrate Istanbul's virtualisation prowess, while the last four socket system was used in an interoperability demo. This feature is interesting, as upgrading from Shanghai to Istanbul seems to be a breeze.

More here.