Despite the fact that most media outlets speculated that Intel’s next generation of Core series CPUs would be titled under a new label, it would appear “Core-i9″ is just a figment of our imagination.

This new breed of processor which brings major changes such as the 32nm manufacturing process and a jump to six-cores, is instead lumped in with its current offerings under the moniker of Core i7. You will remember Intel boasted how their new branding would clarify and distinguish its processors for the general consumers; unfortunately as we have experienced with LGA-1156 processors, the injection of a completely unique type of processor into an existing line, is guaranteed to add even more confusion and disarray to an already complicated naming scheme.

Nevertheless, details have emerged from an online Chinese website that reveals the name of the first chip of the next generation of Gulftown units; the Core I7 980X Extreme Edition.  The six core, 12 threaded processor is produced on the 32nm process with 130W TDP, 12 MB L3 Cache, features Turbo Boost technology and all this fits into the pre-existing LGA1366 socket. Many motherboard manufacturers have already begun supporting the CPU through recent bios updates.

Given its EE designation, the rumoured listing price is expected to float around the $1000 USD/ tray and we should be seeing the first chip(s) launch in March 2010.