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Do you remember five months ago when AMD set a new world record for x86 compatible quad-core processor frequency? It was done at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The processor that had been used, the Phenom II X4 940, had been clocked up to an amazing 6.5GHz.

But a few weeks ago, a new flagship taking the X4 940's place at the top of the pile was launched: the Phenom II X4 955. Its memory controller supports DDR3, much like the other chips that had been launched in the mean time, compared to the X4 940 which does not. Moreover, the stock clock of that new flagship is 200MHz higher than the X4 940.

With such a processor, it seemed it was time for a new record. Obviously, some people already got to play seriously with this chip. A few of them were able to go over the mentioned 6.5GHz. One of them made his way up to 7.127GHz for a suicide run, which seems to be for now the new world record. He has done so by using an exotic cooling method, which as you may have guessed, is liquid nitrogen.

3DMark world records previously attained at the same time in Las Vegas were also beaten. In plain english, what AMD will attempt to do is take back the lead.

So for that event, AMD just tossed away the heatsinks:

Also, they got some of the big names in overclocking. Among these, AMD got, from left to right in the following picture, K|ngp|n, Gomeler and Slappa. *chew was also there but unfortunately he is not in the picture.

The guys will test up to where it can go using liquid helium, which achieves another 100C colder than liquid nitrogen, for processor temperatures of -240C. Can the guys at AMD achieve new world records? The step is set pretty high. There is a supply of 320L of liquid helium and 160L of liquid nitrogen at their disposal. Let's see what they can do!