AMD this morning at last took the wraps from its first mainstream six-core processor, the Phenom II X6. It adds two new cores but without changing the power draw compared to AMD's faster quad-cores or even the price, letting regular users get added speed in newer games and other very parallel tasks. They also add a Turbo Core feature which, like Intel's Turbo Boost, shuts down unneeded cores while ramping up the clock speed; as many as three cores can be active at the higher speeds.
