Well actually I do think they are cores. Each "core"/cluster can retire 4 cops(macro ops) so each module is ,like they call it,an optimized dual core. But all this doesn't matter if performance is not there. Why bother? They will end up behind intel even more and they will be 3 generations behind by the time IB launches. I couldn't care less how they call their cores if these cores performed at least better than K10 ones. By the look of things right now,these cores will be much slower (than K10) and frequency potential will not be nearly enough to catch up. I still have a hard time believing they knew this all along and still went with it. Note that we re not talking 5% slower than K10 here.We are talking A LOT slower in both integer and SIMD.

But let's just wait and see what happens. On paper it is indeed a novel idea and a promising one too. Current numbers do look very bad,but maybe things improve with the retail chips.