Intel has updated its price list with new dual-core Sandy Bridge chips--some likely bound for Apple MacBooks and just about every PC vendor on the planet.
(Credit: Apple)The chipmaker yesterday added i3, mobile i5, and mobile Core i7 dual-core chips to the Sandy Bridge family. Many of the initial Sandy Bridge processors listed--and shipped--back in January were quad-core only.
A low-power i5-2537M (1.4GHz) and standard-power i5-2540M and i5-2520M mobile chips have been added to the current crop of i5 processors. They are priced at $250, $266, and $225, respectively, in thousand unit quantities.
A sizable cluster of new dual-core i7 mobile processors includes the i7-2620M (2.7GHz), i7-2649M (2.3GHz) and i7-2657M (1.6GHz). Those are priced at $346, $346 (also) and $317, respectively.
The new i3 processors include the i3-2120 (3.3GHz) and i3-2100 (3.1GHz). They are set at $138 and $117, respectively.
Apple is expected to announce new MacBook Pros soon that will gorge on the fresh smorgasbord of dual-core Sandy Bridge delicacies. Pros--introduced in April last year--have been using last-generation Core i5 and i7 processors.
Launched at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Sandy Bridge--or "Second Generation Intel Core Processor"--is the first mainstream Intel chip to integrate graphics silicon directly onto the processor. It is also the first chip line based fully on Intel's leading-edge 32-nanometer manufacturing process. These two features allow Intel to offer a power-efficient processor with improved multimedia and gaming capabilities.
Intel has resumed shipments of Sandy Bridge chipsets as it seeks to put a minor issue with the chipset behind it. "There was a slight delay. We have changed some of our ship schedules," Ross Compton, a market manager at Lenovo's ThinkPad laptop group, told CNET today. He said the delay was measured in "weeks."
See the updated Intel price here (PDF). Note that Sandy Bridge processors can be identified by the 2XXX numbering scheme--seen as a suffix to the i3, i5, and i7 identifiers.
Intel has also listed other new desktop processors in addition to the Core i3s cited above.
Updated at 7:35 p.m. PST: correcting for Core i3 processors. The new i3s are desktop, not mobile processors.
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