No AMD isn't getting into the off-road market. AMD's 4x4 is a super high end enthusiast computer platform. 4x4 is built around dual, dual-core processors. Imagine two of their top of the link FX-62 CPUs working together in one mainboard and you have the idea. Sure, AMD has had dual CPU servers and workstations for a while in their enterprise oriented Opteron series. However, 4x4 is a different animal altogether aimed squarely at the gamers.

Some of you may be wondering why you need dual CPUs when there are barely any games and applications that support dual core single CPUs on the market. The answer to that is that the applications are coming. Some of the biggest names in software are pushing hard to bring multi-threaded applications and games to market. If AMD is correct, 4x4 and the new optimised applications should hit the market about he same time. Who's building the multi-threaded applications you ask?

How about Bioware, Cakewalk, Crytek, Havok, Irrational Games, Midway, NERO and Sony to name a few. The biggest driver to multi-CPU gaming rigs for most gamers will be Crytek and their upcoming Crysis game. When is the 4x4 going to be available? No specific release date has been set. However, if you look online AMDs roadmaps show the quad core processors showing up in 2007. It would be reasonable to expect the 4x4 to hit market before then, putting it sometime at the end of 2006. My money is on November, just in time for holiday sales. Also, AMD has not mentioned if 4x4 would be a product available to do-it-yourself PC builders or only available to OEMs. Here's hoping AMD doesn't pull an Nvidia and not let the real enthusiasts build their own, like Nvidia has done to date with Quad SLI.