The producer of the world’s highest performing x86 chip – Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 – has notified its partners that the recently introduced processor will have limited availability in the second quarter of the year, whereas its specifications do comply to Intel’s guidance for high-performance motherboards.

“Expect QX6800 in Q2’07 to have limited availability and thermal specs beyond 2005 Performance FMB (Contact your sales rep for details). Expect standard XE specs and volume in Q3’07,” a document Intel supplies to its partners says.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 central processing unit (CPU) functions at 2.93GHz and contains 8MB of L2 cache. The new model is made just like the previous QX6700: by installing two dual-core “Conroe” dice made using 65nm process technology on a single piece of substrate. According to reviews and benchmarks, the model QX6800 is the world’s highest-performing microprocessor to date.

It was expected that the new processor was drop-in compatible with LGA775 infrastructure that supports chips with four processing engines as well as 1066MHz processor system bus and can provide 130W of power to the central processing units, however, it is not exactly true. While the chip has thermal design power of 130W, its maximum case temperature was lowered to 54.8°C and some other specs altered, which means that not all mainboards are compliant with the new processor and it is unknown which motherboards actually support it.

Intel public relations officials did not comment on the news-story.