Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday officially unwrapped its AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR central processing units (CPUs). The chips will only be available to select "professional" overclockers who will be able to set performance records and, by doing so, advertise AMD Phenom II X4 chips, which are not exactly winning all the reviews.

"AMD wanted to give back with [microprocessors] that have characteristics that are specifically attractive to overclockers: can handle more voltage and scale really well under extreme conditions (LN2 and LHe)," a statement by AMD reads.

AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR microprocessor is designed to be extreme overclocker, which is why its "default" settings are not important at all: even though the nominal frequency of the chip is just 2.0GHz with 1.440V voltage, the chip will never be utilized at this clock-speed. Instead, professional overclockers will use extreme cooling methods, e.g., liquid nitrogen, dry ice, liquid helium, cascade, etc. Nevertheless, "TWKR" processors will not provide truly unbeatable overclocking results: AMD only expects maximum clock-speed to be in the range between 100MHz and 200MHz higher compared to maximum overclocking result of the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (3.20GHz nominal frequency).

Professional overclockers can make AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor work at about 7.0GHz, therefore, at least some TWKR processors will be able to work even faster than that.

"Under extreme low temperatures (liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooling), TWKR processors can reach clock frequencies and near absolute zero temperatures previously unheard of for x86 quad-core processors. The whole, 'why do I care angle?': these processors demonstrate the sound engineering and superior process technology that is in each AMD Phenom II processor," explained Matt Davis, a spokesperson for AMD.

The AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor is not for sale, and not covered by AMD's product warranty. Right now, the processor will be distributed solely through AMD promotional means. At present there are around one hundred TWKR processors in the world.

Tags: AMD, Phenom, Deneb, TWKR, 45nm